Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	authority_n	bishop_n	church_n	2,934	5	4.3576	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87809	A looking-glasse for Levellers: held out in a sermon, preached at St. Peters Pauls-Wharfe, upon Sunday in the after-noone, Sept. 24. 1648. / By Paul Knell, Master in Arts, of Clare-Hall in Cambridge. Sometime chaplain to a regiment of curasiers in His Majesties Army.	Knell, Paul, 1615?-1664.	1648 (1648)	Wing K683; Thomason E465_30; ESTC R204195	16,473	21

title of Vniversall Bishop he challengeth as it were the Wardship nay the Lordship of the Church whatsoever he saith must go for Gospel meerly because he saith it he taketh upon him more then Apostolicall authority even that which is Gods peculiar To forgive sins for which cause fall the silly people unto him and thereout he sucketh no small advantage it is a masse of money that his Pardons annually bring in to him And other stratagems he hath but all to enrich himselfe He will release men out of Purgatory if they will give him money enough he will warrant they shal be heires of Heaven though herein he contradict himself for sometimes he telleth them that they can never be sure of Heaven till they come thither yet thus he befooleth the people he will warrant them an inheritance in Heaven if they will make him their Heire on earth His whole Religion indeed is nothing else but a politick project to get money he feedeth not the flock of Christ but feedeth upon it he keepeth the people in ignorance seeking not them but theirs He and all his Cardinals Monks and Abbots they seek their own profit and preferment their own gain and greatnesse like these chief Priests in our Text whose aime was to get the inheritance Come say they let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours And so I have gone thorow the severall parts of the Text. A few words of application and I have done Our Text is a plain conspiracy against our Saviour and the conspiracy of Levellers against our Soveraigne wil match it right Our Saviour let out his Vineyard to Husbandmen so our Soveraigne did as it were let out His Kingdome to States-men he gave them power to prune and dresse it to take off superfluities to rectifie enormities he gave them their hearts desire and denied them not the request of their lips he granted that which none but a most indulgent Land-lord would ere have granted they asked a lease of him and he gave them a long lease longer then any of their Predecessours ever had he made them no Tenants for years much lesse at will but reserving his fee-simple I mean his Negative voice he gave it under his hand that he would not re-enter till they themselves consented to it O fortunatos nimium bona si sua norint Agricolas What men were ever so happy as these might have been How might the glory of their God of their King of their Countrey and even of themselves have been advanced by them But neglecting the three first they aimed chiefly at the last at their owne glory For assoone as their unlucky lease was sealed they straight way thought themselves free-holders taking Regall power upon them as if the Militia the King's inheritance had been theirs they devested their Soveraigne of it and invested themselves with it making the Heire of three Kingdomes though no Child in any thing but malice to differ nothing from a servant when he was Lord of all for without him they took upon them to un-make and to make Lawes saying we have the legislative power who is Lord over us And that they might the better enjoy the Crowne they entred into Covenant against the Miter resolved to abolish the excellent government of Bishops root and branch And because the King both against his oath and conscience would not yeild to this Come said they let us compell him to it by force of Armes they set the people awork first to mutiny then to fight against him as who should say we have no part in Charles neither have we inheritance in the Son of James every man to his tents ô England they proclaimed open War against Him and His Adherents giving out Commissions to kill and slay all persons that should oppose them their Soveraigne Lord the King was not excepted for bullets cannot distinguish between a Scepter and a shovel the sword as David said devoureth one as well as another But seeing they could not kill Him in the field they have since attempted it in the prison it is too apparent that the Ring-leaders of this Rebellion had an hand in that late Conspiracy against Him Nor is it only Carolus but even Rex that they strike at going about not onely to kill the Person but the very office of King I speak of the levelling Faction all this while Come say they let us break his bonds asunder and cast away his cords from us come let us make no more addresses to him but let us make our selves a free-State that the name of Monarch may be no more in remembrance And to effect this they have made the Kingdome not only a field but even a sea of bloud breathing out nothing but slaughter against all loyall Subjects killing and slaying butchering and murthering their Brethren whose bloud they have shed like Water on every side like that Woman in the Revelation drinking themselves drunk with the bloud of Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus in which noble Army those matchlesse Knights murdered at Colchester may well be listed It is no mervaile if these bloud-hounds will not have Gods Commandements read in Churches for one of these telleth them expresly they must doe no murder and as almost all the rest so most especially that sixt Commandement they count Apocryphall for murdering of men is their profession and a great part of their Religion as if Mars were their God and Mahomet their Messiah Let them usurp the name of Christians while they will I am sure their bloudy practices proclaime them arrant Turkes Christianity is for the saving of mens lives Turcisme for the destroying of them and such is the Religion of these Levellers destruction is in their way they are still opposing of Treaties the way of peace have they not known like horse-leaches they never think they have bloud enough they would have it even unto the horse-bridles as if they had a mind to swim in bloud And all this under pretence of Religion and Reformation a pretence so pitiful so thread bare that I wonder men are not ashamed to be seduced by it for Religion was ever made the stalking-horse to Rebellion and indeed this must be the pretence or else the designe will soon be dasht for should they proclaime themselves open Atheists and professe the subverting of Religion I think the world is not so bad but that it would tear them all in pieces They are bound therefore to pretend piety like Absolom and Jezebel but their actions tell the world that they ayme at other ends even at Libertinisme that they may be lawlesse that they may doe what they list that they may roare and whore yet never be questioned or controuled for there are no men living more given to the flesh then they that pretend so extreamly to the spirit but chiefly the Inheritance the Kingdomes wealth is that they ayme at they seek not the kingdom of God but the riches of this

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and slew his Brother 1 Joh. 3.12 This was likewise the resolution of wicked Esau the daies of mourning for my Father are at hand then saith he will I slay my Brother Jacob Gen. 27.41 Thus Pharaoh commanded the Aegyptian Midwives to murder every Male child of the Hebrews if it be a Son then ye shall kill him Exod. 1.16 And thus Herod slew all the Children in Bethleem from two years old and under Mat. 2.16 This we read of Herodias that nothing would satiate her malice but Saint John Baptists bloud Mat. 14.8 Thus the Jewes cried out against Saint Paul Away with such a fellow from the earth for it is not fit that he should live Act. 22.22 And Act. 23.12 we find some that bound themselves under a curse they took the Covenant saying that they would neither eate nor drinke till they had killed Paul And the Whore of Babylon is said to be drunk with the bloud of Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus Rev. 17.6 I might be infinite in examples but this in our Text shall be instar omnium we may fee the bloudy mindednesse of wicked men by these chief Priests who conspired not to banish or imprison but even to murder Gods owne Son they reasoned among themselves saying come let us kill him And the voices of the multitude and of these chief Priests prevailed this treason stood not alway in consultation but went on to action what the common counsell determined wickedly the common people executed greedily they cast the Heire out of the Vineyard and slew him with this dreadfull imprecation his bloud be on us and on our children And seeing our Master was thus used we must expect no better measure but even to be killed all the day long as the Psalmist speaketh and to be counted as Sheep appointed to be slaine The Alpha and the Omega of the Church is writ in bloud Sanguine fundata est Ecclesia sanguine crevit Sanguine firmatur sanguine finis erit And we need not wonder at this if we believe our Saviour for it is but that which he told us long agoe that we should be hated and hunted after for his sake yea the time will come saies he that whosoever killeth you will think he doth God service A Prophecy that seemeth to point directly at our very daies when the bloudiest of Souldiers think themselves the best of Saints when murdering of loyall Christians goeth for pure Religion But though our bloud be shed like water on every side yet our God that is true and holy will in his good time judge and avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the earth there will one day be a strict inquisition made for bloud for the blood of Strafford and Canterbury for the bloud of Lucas and Lisle for the bloud of Tomkins and Chaloner for the bloud of Yeomans Bourchier and Burleigh for the bloud of Dunkin and others in Kent there will be a day I say if not in this yet in the next world when all the righteous bloud that hath of late years been shed in this Kingdome shall be required at the hands of this tyrannicall satanicall generation And so I passe from the third part of the Text which was the manner of the chief Priests conspiracy they reasoned among themselves saying come let us kill him to the fourth and last the end of their conspiracy which was that they might be Lords of the Mannour that the inheritance may be ours But when the Husbandmen saw him they reasoned among themselves saying this is the Heire come let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours In every action there is both Opus and Intentio operantis the doing of the work and the end for which we doe it and by an Hysteron proteron the last of these is first what is last in execution the same is first in our intention the end being alway the beginning of the action Now it is an axiome in Philosophy Finis Bonum convertuntur let the action be what it will Good is alway propounded for the end either Honestum or Jucundum or Vtile either an honest or a pleasant or a profitable end they that doe evill will say they doe this that good may come of it good to themselves at least though hurt to others or if it be not good indeed yet it shall seemingly be good and the last of those three ends the chief Priests here propound unto themselves Bonum utile they set up profit for their end Come let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours They propound the same end with those sinners that Solomon cautioneth us to take heed of Prov. 1.11 13. where hope of gaine is used as a motive to invite others to joyne with them Come let us lay wait for bloud let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause we shall find all pretious substance we shall fill our houses with spoile And at the 19 Verse there is just such another passage So are the waies of every one that is greedy of gaine which taketh away the life of the owners thereof quid non mortalia pectora cogis Auri sacra fames There is no villany but will go down with men if it have a golden bait The love of money is the root of all evill 1 Tim. 6.10 Balaam will endeavour to curse Israel if he may gain but the rewards of Divination Achan will take of the accursed thing if he may gain a Babylonish garment two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold Saul will spare the spoile of Amaleck if he may gain good store of rich plunder Gehazi will tell an arrant lie to Naaman if he may gain two talents and new clothes Judas will betray his own Master if he may gain thirty pieces of silver the Souldiers will say that Christ was stollen out of the grave if the chief Priests will give them large money Jezebel will plot Naboth's death if she may gain his Vineyard she proclaimed a fast yet knew no other godlinesse but gaine and this this likewise set the chief Priests a work to conspire the death of Christ Come say they let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours That we may be no longer dressers but possessers of the Vineyard that there may be no Superiour no Lord over us but that the Church may be ruled and governed as we list that the doctrine and discipline of it may be what we see good nay that we may have dominion as well over mens free-hold as their faith that their consciences and coffers may both be at our command This was the end that the chief Priests aimed at when they conspired against the Heire Come let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours And herein the Bishop of Rome looketh very like them who stileth himself Christs Vicar S. Peters Successour he saith that he is the right heire the head of Christs whole Church he arrogateth the