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	church_n	king_n	2,752	5	4.0125	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16944	A sermon preached at Pauls-Crosse, May 30. 1626 vvherein may be seene whom we are to repute hereticks, and schismaticks, what sleights they vse to deceiue, Gods iust iudgements on them, and how we may escape those nets which they lay for vs : also good councell to the magistrate, minister, and subiects, necessary for these times / by Mattheuu Brookes.	Brookes, Matthew, fl. 1626-1657.	1626 (1626)	STC 3837; ESTC S4166	26,742	50

agreed vpon in certaine Articles in the Conuocation confirmed by the royall authority which Articles are a declaration of what our Church approueth in the most principall points concerning saith and the publike seruice of God Let mee beseech them to marke those that cause deuisions and offences contrary to that receiued doctrine Yet with a iust distinction as well of the persons of those that cause deuisions and offences for some are obstinate and some are tractable as also of the deuisions and offences by them caused and maintained for of those also some are damnable some onely dangerous and to the honour of the Church of God scandalous For the better effecting of this let me remember them further that the old Aegiptians who were not altogether sottish in worldly matters were wont to paint their Iudges blindfolded and their President or chiefe Iustice without hands as intimating that Iustice should neither see the person of any man or feele his reward which if it be to bee practised in matters temporall how much more in this great matter which so neerely and meerely concerneth the soules of men Secondly let mee beseech the Ministers of the Word whom Christ calleth for the worke of their profession the labourers of his haruest who are the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God To looke backe vpon those forenamed Articles and to remember whereunto they haue all subscribed with their owne hands not with equiuocation I hope as Arius but with synceritie and with a good conscience as good Christians ought to doe and more especially as men of God should doe and therefore ioyntly with their hearts and mouthes to stand in defence of that truth vnto which they haue giuen their hands On the other side if any man preach another Gospell or defend or maintaine any contrary opinion by which the peace of our Church is disrupted with such a one according to the Apostol call counsell to haue conference and to admonish him to returne to the soundnesse of faith and into the bosome of our Church like Noahs Done into the Arke againe A m●n that is an Hereticke after the first and second admonition reiect Where I desire them to obserue that admonition in that place is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word pointeth out the end and purpose of our trauells rather than the paine and labour of them namely to put a right minde into him or to bring him into his wittes againe For hee is madde as Nazianzen spake of Apollinaris and as Eusebius saith that Manes was madde according to his name therefore must wee labour to reduce him to his right wits againe Indeed to cure a mad-man seemeth to bee a most miraculous thing seeing how few will bee reclaymed But let vs not despaire seeing that God hath sometimes blessed the labours of his seruants in this kinde Berillus Bishop of Bostra in Arabia who denyed that Christ was existent before hee tooke flesh of the Virgin by the painefull trauell of Origen was brought into his wits againe In like manner Coracion who had beene infected with the error of Nepos an Aegiptian Byshop father of the Chiliastes was conuerted to the faith by Dionysius B. of Alexandria But if none of our admonitions will preuaile with them but because they are filthy they will still be filthy let vs then reiect them for their prophane and vaine babblings will increase vnto more vngodlinesse and their word will eate as doth a Canker Let vs haue no more acquaintance with them than the Iewes had with the Heathen men or Publicans or St. Iohn with Cerinthus Let those that haue authority in the Church after the example of the Apostles and the godly Fathers of the prime age of the Church deliuer them to Sathan that they may learne not to blaspheme And let vs after the like examples vtterly auoide their companie and societie as knowing them to bee the diuells sonnes which doe gigantum more bellare cum dijs warre against God as the Poet feigned certaine monstrous Gyants to wage warre against the gods Let vs leaue to conuerse with them which say they are Iewes and are not but are the Sinagogue of Sathan In a word if wee cannot conuert them let vs be sure to auoide them and vtterly to reiect them lest God say vnto vs as he said to the Angell or Bishop of the Church of Pergamos thou hast them that maintaine the Doctrine of Balaam c. For if we proceed not against them by that lawfull power which God and the King hath giuen vs or if we will not doe so much as to auoide them it cannot be denyed but that we haue them Lastly let me speake a few words in the eares of the people and because they are of two sorts either those whose hearts are deceiued by good words and faire speeches or those pillars of the sonnes of Seth against whom the flouds of Beliall which haue euen ouer-flowen the world like the great and generall Deluge haue not preuailed Let me first direct my speech vnto those that are fallen whom I will not terrifie with the greatnesse of their fall by pointing vpward from whence they fell and downeward to let them see whither they are fallen I beseech them to looke on our Christian charitie who doe not esteeme them to be Heretickes or Schismatickes but doe denie them so to be vnlesse with obstinate mindes they will defend and maintaine their dangerous conceipts My counsell vnto such therefore is that they will resort to our Sermons and Lectures where they may heare the reasons giuen in publique for the faith which we professe and if ioyntly with this they will follow Christ his counsell searching the Scriptures adding instant prayer vnto God that hee would be pleased to reueale vnto them the mysteries thereof they shall doe well and I doubt not but they will returne againe into the bosome of our Church to bee ingrafted as naturall branches into the true Oliue from which for a time they haue been cut off and wee shall reioyce exceedingly that they are come againe yea the Angells of God in heauen shall ioy for their conuersion Secondly to those whose hearts are not yet inuenomed let me speake a word in due season Obedience must be giuen to the faith Therefore let them cleaue close vnto it and not suffer themselues in any sort to be seduced It is a rule to interpret the Scriptures Let them expound the Scriptures according to the proportion of faith For if they meete not in all places with the naturall sense and the direct meaning of the holy Ghost for that in the Epistles of St. Paul and diuers other bookes of the Scripture Some things are hard to be vnderstood yet so long as they interpret nothing contrary to the Articles of their faith Augustine will tell them that they are like vnto a certaine traueller who hauing lost the direct way wandreth in those

proue them be separated from the Church yea in time of persecution they may deny that blessed name by which they are redeemed as Peter did but they shall not die in their separation for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus the vnregenerate may be deceiued and deceiued finally and by Gods iust iudgement perish in their sinnes because they were seduced and opened their hearts to those that caused deuisions and offences and both these sorts of simple ones as well the regenerate as vnregenerate are those that are here noted to be deceiued by the good words and faire speeches of seducers For the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which words are well translated by Theodorus Beza hominum minime malorum that is to say men not drowned and plunged in the vsuall sinnes and vices of the world And this may teach vs two things First that we ioyne not our selues to any of those Sects that are deuided from our Church which is a member of the true Catholike Church of God whether Papists Anabaptists Brownists Familists or what else you may call them for that wee obserue many excellent Ministers endowed with many rare and admirable gifts and qualities to teach their heresies for such a one was Arius the Hereticke And wee can neither depriue our Aduersaries of the Church of Rome nor diuers others that in other kindes trouble our Church with strange opinions of that honour if yet wee may call it honour and not rather Gloriam Herostrate such honour as Herostrotus atchieued by firing the Ephesians Temple For what if they haue learning wit and eloquence what if in outward gifts they shine as the Starres is not that great red Dragon in the Reuelation said to drawe with his tayle the third part of the Starres of Heauen and to cast them to the earth or hath not the diuell at all times gotten such to make deuisions and to cause offences The lesse ought we to admire if they win to bee their disciples and proselites ciuell honest men whom the world for the moralitie of their liues holdeth in some esteeme for such were they whom Absolom by faire speeches and large promises had drawne to his part against the King his father euen to commit treason and rebellion with him Such because they meane least hurt are soonest deceiued like vnwary fishes taken in a Net and being deceiued doe much aduantage the deuills cause for that their liues are had in admiration and they haue gained the good opinion of their neighbours for that syncerity of which they make profession no lesse than the Scribes and Pharisees Ne aetas vos corum nec authoritas fallas Let not their age let not their authority deceiue you faith Cyprian Againe we must not vncharitaby iudge them to bee vtterly cast away all who decline from or leaue our societie for that the heart of a regenerate man may for a time God turning his face from him that hee may be troubled bee deceived but rather let vs pray that their fall be not finall and if it please God of his mercy to send them backe againe vnto vs let vs not refuse them as Nouatus did for that they haue sinned so scandalously against our good profession to the dishonour of God and of our Church I will end here with the words of Cyprian Sufficiat lapsis vna ruina c. Let one fall bee sufficient to those that are fallen let no man deceitefully throw downe those that are willing to rise vp againe let no man presse downe more grieuously those that already lye flat on the earth for whom we pray that God with his hand and arme would helpe them vp let no man denie the hope of life to those that are halfe dead desiring to returne to their former health Nemo nutantibus lapsus sui Caligine omne itineris salutaris lumen extinguat Let no man put out all the light of a secure voyage to those that stagger in the darkenesse of their fall And seeing that those whose hearts are deceiued are fallen downe lie groueling on the earth gasping for breath and grappleing for life and being ready to die doe lie in darkenesse and in the shadow of death it followeth that those who deceiue their hearts throw them downe stabbe them and wound them euen vnto death therefore that I may draw to a conclusion I will binde vp all that hitherto hath beene spoken in the words of the text Now I beseech you brethren marke them which cause deuisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which yee haue learned and auoide them For they that are such serue not our Lord Iesus Chrest but their owne belly and by good words and faire speeches deceiue the hearts of the simple And now to recapitulate what hath beene spoken you must remember that the enemies of the Church and people of God are of two sorts forraine and domesticke the first are those that make no profession at all of Christianitie neither will be so reputed as Iewes Turkes Infidells and Pagans the other are those who make profession of Christian religion and will bee accounted Catholicks and Christians these are of two sorts Heretickes or Schismatickes the one doth cut in sunder the band of faith the other doth make a breach in the knot of loue Against these St. Paul addressing himselfe beseecheth all faithfull men as his brethren to marke them and to auoide them vpon this reason that they are most dangerous enemies to the soule causing deuisions and offences in the Church contrary to the doctrine of the Gospell Now least this his fatherly counsell might be slighted he proceedeth to shew the cause or reason vpon which wee are to marke them and auoide them viz. their aime is not to serue God by so doing but they haue worldly respects tending to their owne aduantage they talke like Diuines and demeane themselues like morall honest men by which meanes those that are plaine and meane well are soonest deceiued like harmelesse Doues caught in the Fowlers Net Vpon which great causes that I may end with application I am bold to direct my speech first to those that are in authoritie whom though I cannot accuse for former negligence and euen in my owne conscience am confident that they will carefully discharge their duties in their seuerall places with wisdome and iudgement yet doe I desire that they will be pleased to let me minde them of it as sometimes Philips seruant minded him of his mortality God and the King hath committed the Sword vnto them which Sword they beare not in vaine Therefore by the power of the sword committed to their trust may they marke those that cause deuisions and offences contrary to the doctrine that wee haue receiued This doctrine is the truth of God taught and deliuered in the blessed Scriptures which that wee might hold with vnanimous consent and not diuert from it it was