Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	according_a	good_a	work_n	2,753	5	6.1002	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28513	True peace, or, A moderate discourse to compose the unsettled consciences and greatest differences in ecclesiastical affaires written long since by the no less famous then learned Sir Francis Bacon ...	Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626.	1662 (1662)	Wing B339; ESTC R37050	17,173	50

more narrow view and consideration of the accidents and circumstances of these controversies wherein either part deserveth blame and imputation I finde generally in causes of Church-controversies that men do offend in some or all of these five points 1. The first the giving of occasion unto controversies and also the inconsiderate and ungrounded taking of the occasion 2. The next is the extending and multiplying of controversies to a more generall opposition and contradiction then appeareth at the first propounding of them when mens judgements are least partiall 3. The third is the passionate and unbrotherly practises and proceedings on both parts towards the persons each of others for their discredit and suppression 4. The fourth is the courses holden and and entertained on either side for the drawing of the practizants to a more streight union within themselves which ever importeth a further destruction of the intire body 5. The last is the undue and inconvenient propounding publishing and debating of the controversies In which point the most palpable error hath been already spoken of as that which through the strangenesse and freshnesse of the abuse first offereth it selfe to the conceits of all men Now concerning the occasion of controversies it cannot be denied but that the imperfection in the conversation and government of those which have chiefe place in the Church have ever been principall causes and motives of schismes and divisions For whilest the Bishops and governours of the Church continue full of knowledge and good workes whilest they feed their flock indeed while they deale with the secular estates in all liberty and resolution according to the majesty of their calling and the pretious care of soules imposed upon them so long the Church is situate as it were upon an hill no man maketh question of it or seekes to depart from it But when these vertues in the Fathers and Elders of the Church have lost their light and that they wax wordly lovers of themselves and pleasers of men then men begin to grope for the Church as in the darke they bee in doubt whether they bee the successors of the Apostles or of the Pharisees yea howsoever they sit in Moses Chaire yet they can never speake tanquam authoritatem habentes as having authority because they lost their reputation in the consciences of men by declining their steppes from the way which they trace out to others so as men have need continually sounding in their eares this saying Nolite exire goe not out so ready are they to depart from the Church upon every voyce And therefore it is truely noted by one who writeth as a naturall man that the hypocrisie of Friers did for a great time maintaine and beare out the irreligion of Bishops and Prelates For this is that double policie of the spiritual enemy either by counterfeit holinesse of life to authorize and establish errors or by the corruption of manners to discredit and call into question truth and lawfull things This concerneth my Lords the Bishops unto whom I am witnesse to my selfe that I stand affected as I ought no contradiction hath supplanted in mee the reverence I owe to their calling neither hath any detraction or calumnie embased my opinion of their persons I know some of them whose names are most pierced with these accusations to be men of great vertues although indisposition of the time and the want of correspondence many wayes is enough to frustrate the best indevours in the Church And for the rest generally I can condemne none I am no judge of them that belong to so high a master neither have I two witnesses and I know it is truely said of Fame Pariter facta atque infecta canebat Their taxations arise not all from one coast They have indifferent enemies and ready to invent slander more ready to amplifie and most ready to believe it magnes mendacii credulitas credulity is the allurement of lies But if any be who have against the supreame Bishops not a few things but many if any have lost his first love if any bee neither hot nor cold if any have stumbled to folly at the threshold in such sort that he cannot sit well that entred ill it is time they returne whence they are fallen and confirme the things which remaine Great is the weight of this fault Et eorum causa abhorrebant homines à sacrificiis Domini and for their cause did men abhor the worship of God But howsoever it be that those have sought to defame them cast contempt upon them are not to beexcused It is the precept of Salomon That the Rulers be not reproched no not in thought but that wee draw our conceit into a modest interpretation of their doings The holy Angell would give no sentence of blasphemy against the common slanderer but sayd Increpet te Dominus the Lord rebuke thee The Apostle Saint Paul thought against him that did polute sacred justice with tyrannous violence hee did justly denounce the judgement of God in saying Percuciet te Dominus the Lord shall strike thee yet in saying Paries dealbate he thought he had gone too farre and retracted it whereupon a learned Father sayd Ipsum quam vis inane nomen umbram sacerdotis cogitans expavit The ancient Councels and Synods as it is noted by the Ecclesiasticall story when they deprived any Bishop never recorded the offence but buried it in perpetuall silence Onely Cham purchased his fathers curse with revealing his fathers disgrace and yet a much greater fault is it to ascend from the person to the calling and to draw that in question Many good Fathers rigorously complained of the unworthinesse of Bishops as if it did presently forfeit cease their office One sayth Sacerdotes nominamur non sumus we are called Priests and are not Another sayth nisi bonum opus amplectaris Episcopus esse non potes except thou undertake the good worke thou canst not be a Bishop yet they meant nothing lesse then to move doubt of their calling or ordination The second occasion of cōtroversies is the nature humor of some men The Church never wanteth a kinde of persons that love the salutation of Rabbi not in ceremony or complement but in an inward authority which they seeke over mens mindes in drawing them to depend upon their opinion and so seeke knowledge at their lippes these men are the true successours of Diotrephes the lovers of preheminence and not Lord Bishops such spirits doe light upon another sort of natures which doe adhere to these men Quorum gloria in obsequio stiffe fellowes and such as zeale marvellously for those whom they have chosen to bee their masters This latter sort of men for the most part are men of young yeares and superficiall understanding carried away with partiall respect of persons or with the enticing appearance of godly names and pretences Pauci res ipsas sequuntur plures nomina rerum plurima nomina magistrorum few follow