Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	action_n	body_n	soul_n	1,426	5	5.4689	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38575	A treatise of excommunication wherein 'tis fully, learnedly, and modestly demonstrated that there is no warrant ... for excommunicating any persons ... whilst they make an outward profession of the true Christian faith / written originally in Latine by ... Thomas Erastus ... about the year 1568.; Explicatio gravissimae quaestionis utrum excommunicatio. English	Erastus, Thomas, 1524-1583.	1682 (1682)	Wing E3218; ESTC R20859	61,430	96

4. 't was commanded That if the Houshold were too little for the Lamb that then he and his Neighbor next unto the house should take it according to the number of the Souls to the end that the whole might be eaten The like seems to have been observed in the matter of Circumcision excepting in this particular that they were not obliged to circumcise at Jerusalem onely as they were to celebrate there the Passover for I do not remember that the presence of the Priest was requisite to Circumcision XIV John the Baptist too who was the forerunner of Christ did constantly do the same for he baptized not onely the Pharisees and Sadduces that came unto him whose behaviour and manners he very well understood when he publickly called them a Generation of Vipers but also the Publicans and all others that resorted to him to be baptized to the intent that they repenting them of their former evil life might set about the amending it and so might flee from the Wrath to come 'T is scarce probable that such a man as John was should admit of men of such profligate lives men that impiously audaciously and publickly denied the Resurrection of the Dead had he not known that the Law forbad not access to such for the Judaical Law as has been already shewn prohibited no circumcised persons but the unclean and leprous XV. Besides this Uncleanness was a Legal Ceremony not any impurity of Life or pravity of Manners for not he who had sinned or committed any wickedness was thereby unclean but the Unclean were those who touched any dead Corpse any Excrements any person that had an Issue of Bloud or the like And 't was for this cause that the Pharisees would not go into the Judgment-hall when they had delivered up Christ to Pilate to be put to death lest they should be debarred thereby from eating the Passover But surely the Mosaical uncleanness did not so typifie and represent our iniquities that as they who were thereby defiled were shut out from the Tabernale and the company of others so should it signifie that these sins were to be corrected and punisht by with-holding the Sacraments and by Exclusion from the Visible Church as appears plainly by what follows For 1. Even whilst Legal Uncleanness was in force and there were then wicked men in abundance yet were not the same punishments appointed for the wicked and for the unclean What probability is there then that these Ceremonies should typifie their punishment or in any sort signifie that Moral Delinquencies should be thus checkt and redress'd when the Ceremonies themselves should be taken away and cancel'd 2. Moses had plainly been inconsistent with himself had he in fact admitted them to the Temple and Rituals whom at the same time he by those Ceremonies signified that they were to be excluded For certain it is that no one was ever thrust out of the Tabernacle or from the Congregation for the pravity of his Manners if as the Law commanded he had neither touched any dead Body nor otherwise in that nature defiled himself At this rate therefore Moses should punish those that were but figuratively unclean and let such as were unclean in reality go unregarded I mean as to this sort of punishment 3. That Legal Impurity affected and tainted the Body alone whereas wickedness consists in the Internal actions and operations of the mind for the cause and root of all Evil is born with us and falls not under mans correction whilst it puts not forth its fruit for otherwise must the whole World be Excommunicate for we shall not get these spots out of our Soul whilst we breathe mortal air But that other Impurity which is but a bodily stain is punish'd by being debarr'd Commerce with others though there be no other fruit no farther evil springing from that uncleanness nor he that is defil'd hath done nothing against the Law but for the actions and transgressions of the unclean they were dealt with at the rate of others transgressions if the parties under that defilement did any thing against the Law and the cleanness or uncleanness of the sinner neither aggravated nor lessened the moral guilt 4. Our very Adversaries confess that not all sorts and sizes of sins are to be redressed by Excommunication whereas the Law commands that every uncleanness be punisht by Exclusion from the Tabernacle and publick Sacrifices so that those could not typifie all sorts of Iniquities 5. No man that sins unwittingly can be excommunicated but 't was usual for men unwittingly to contract uncleanness and not onely without any blame of theirs but to their great grief and trouble What fault was there in him who sleeping unvoluntarily suffered nocturnal Pollutions and where the Wife might unexpectedly fall into that condition which the Law made a Pollution to the Husband if he approach'd her or by the decease of Children Wife or Parents or the like which usually happened And now it needs not to be proved that they are onely voluntary and spontaneous Crimes for which persons may be as some men think debarr'd Access to the Sacraments 6. A far severer punishment was ordained for him that killed a man against and without any will or intention of so doing than a naked seclusion from the Sacraments for some few weeks or days If therefore an unpremeditated and involuntary offence and by consequence a sin of the lesser die underwent a more sharp and bitter chastizement than the foulest Legal Impurities 't is plain that the punishments for them are not intended to represent the punishment for Moral Iniquities 7. It often fell out that men of the greatest Sanctity and Integrity became unclean and were debarr'd both from entering into the Temple and from the use of Sacrifices whilst on the other hand men most notoriously wicked had admission to either without controul whereas if in the Church of God both ought to undergo the same punishment the latter should rather be secluded than the former 8. 'T is manifest that God did at no time or place absolutely prohibit all Legal Impurity for some were to attend the dying persons some those that were infected with an unclean disease some must bury the dead and in fine some must purifie the unclean by which means they themselves became defiled v. Numb 19. so that God would not that all Legal Impurities should be avoided But God prohibited sins of all kinds and to all men and at all times and never indulg'd the perpetrating any wicked action at any time or place whatever 9. God commands that sin should be restrain'd by Fire Sword Halters Stoning Stripes Mulcts Imprisonment and other penalties of the like nature but ordains that the legally unclean should be purified by sprinkling and washing with water and the like Numb 19. v. 17 18 19. 10. He that had contracted uncleanness according to the definitions of legal Pollutions and died in that state as for instance women in their menstruousness or men

1 Chron. from the 22th to the 27th Chapter Then for Solomon who was a King and no Priest he not onely built the Temple but dedicated it To the same purpose is that famous relation 2 Chron. 19. of Jehosaphat which being well consider'd gives great light to the matter in hand So does that of the good King Hezechia and indeed the whole Old Testament witnesses no less If therefore the State and Church was founded instituted and established upon so much Wisdom that which makes the nearest approaches to the Form and Model thereof as far as the present circumstances and different state of things will allow challenges at least our Praises and Approbation if not our Imitation And therefore in whatever Nation the Civil Magistrate is Christian Pious and Orthodox there 's no need of other persons who under another name or title should set a governing us and call us to account or punish us for our misdeeds as if there were no difference betwixt a Believing and Infidel Prince But says D. Wolfgangus Musculus in his common places de Magistratu from whom I have borrowed and transcribed what I said last 'T is a most pernicious Errour and big with dangerous Consequence that so many think no better of a Christian Magistracy than of an Heathen one whose power is to be allowed of no farther than meer Temporals If then Believing Governours had authority not onely to interpose in the ordering religious matters agreeable to Scripture-rules and to regulate the Offices and other the Ministerial parts about it which is the reason that Moses commands that when they should chuse them a King he should write him a Copy of the Law in a Book and that to be with him and he to read therein all the days of his life but had also power to punish Vice in the same manner 'T is a needless fruitless attempt for men to be now-a-days contriving and setting up new Models of Government which levels Magistrates themselves to the Rank and Condition of their Subjects for this Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in point of Manners hath no place of Holy Writ to vouch for it or set it up not but that Civil Governours will do well to advise in all Doctrinals with those that are learned and have labour'd in the Word LXXV But now in those Churches whose mishap 't is to live under a Profane Government as in the Dominions of Turks and Papists they should make choice of pious sober persons who agreeable to St. Paul's command might arbitrate between contesting Members might take up Quarrels might do every thing of that nature might chide and admonish debauched flagitious men and such of the Ministry themselves who walk disorderly and if this avail not then might they punish them or rather recal them to a better temper by avoiding their company by debarring them of private Commerce by reprehending them publickly or by some such-like marks of their displeasure but to thrust them from that Sacrament which is of God's Institution when they are minded to come is more than any Church or man has a right to do for none can judge of the Heart but God alone It may chance that some sparks of Piety and Remorse may kindle in a sinners Soul whilst he sits in the Assembly which it can be no hurt nay may be greatly good to cherish since Religion forbids it not And how can it be I would fain ask but horrid absurd and impious to boot to turn away any man from publickly and solemnly paying his Thanks to God and commemorating the Death of his Saviour when he finds Impulses from within to do it and would fain celebrate it with his fellow-brethren the Church and declares 't is his hearty desire to be and continue a Member of it and that he would give publick testimony that his past life is irksom to himself APPENDIX IT will not be amiss perhaps by way of Corollary or Supplement to mention the Decrees that were made in the year 1523. at the Diet at Norimberg by all the Layety of the Imperial States and were sent to the Bishop of Rome for 't will appear by that that we are not the first who have started this Question but that the Divines began to think of it nigh 46 years since I am confident no man that is any whit vers'd in the German Affairs can believe or imagine that any such thing should be enacted but requested by them from the Bishop of Rome without the Clergies knowing of it But that the Authority may be the more authentick and the thing clearer I have been content to compare the German Copy which was writ at that Diet with the Latine one sent to the Pope and which Matth. Flac. Illyricus caus'd to be reprinted at Basil 1565. with his Book De Sectis Dissensionibus Papistarum and upon comparing both to publish the entire Decree or Act. Therefore among the 100 Grievances which were fuller express'd at this Session at Norimberg than they had two years before at Worms this following is the 34th Item Many Christians at Rome and in other places besides are by Archbishops Bishops and their Ecclesiastical Judges excommunicated for Civil causes and on a Temporal account whereby many weak Consciences are disturb'd and brought to despair so that upon a moneyscore and for the transitory things of this life and very often for very trivial causes are some brought into danger of perishing Soul and Body too contrary to the Law and Command of God besides the losses they suffer in Estates and Reputation thereby Whereas no person ought to be excommunicated or held for such unless he be convict of Heresie as the Holy Scripture bears witness And therefore the Lay-states of the Empire beseech your Pontificial Holiness that as becomes a godly and religious Father you would take away these Grievances of Excommunication at Rome or in the Roman Court and provide that the same be done every where else by the Archbishops Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Judges And lastly that your Holiness would command That no person be excommunicated or reputed for such for any cause whatever besides the plain and prov'd Crime of Heresie in matters relating to Religion for that no person ought to be separated or removed from God and his Church for any Temporal cause or otherwise or for any other humane crime except Infidelity or Heresie To the same purpose is that of Joh. Stumpias in his second Book of his Chronicon Helvet cap. 29. where he says That the Swedish Clergy about the year 1245. when Henry Landgrave of Turing and after his death William Earl of Holland were chosen by the instigation of the Pope in opposition to the Emperour Frederick the second and Conrade his Son taught with great constancy among other things That never was there such a Power granted to mortal man under the Sun to prohibit Christians Spiritual Duties and the Worship of God and therefore did they continue to say Mass says he though the Pope had interdicted them and denounced them Excommunicate FINIS Hieronym upon Tit. chap. 1. * See Mat. 11. 28. Luke 5. 5. Joh 4. 6. 1 Cor. 4. 12. Eph. 4. 28. 1 Thess 5. 12. which helps mightily to the explaining this 1 Tim. 5. 17. 1 Tim. 4. 10. 1 Cor. 15. 58. alibi