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	reason_n	1,519	5	4.9993	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01012	A vvord of comfort. Or A discourse concerning the late lamentable accident of the fall of a roome, at a Catholike sermon, in the Black-friars at London, wherwith about fourscore persons were oppressed. Written for the comfort of Catholiks, and information of Protestants, by I.R. p	Floyd, John, 1572-1649.	1623 (1623)	STC 11118; ESTC S120899	43,744	60

by the instinct of Nature accounted the punishment of God as it were taking the execution of Iustice immediatly into his owne hand Hence it is that they who from the hand of Diuine execution escape afflicted frighted wounded and hurt are to be held as set free by Gods speciall warrant as punished inough according to the equity of his iudgment Wherefore presently to set vpon them as deseruing more punishment is not only iniustice and cruelty but also a kind of impiety and condemnation of God as if he wanted eyther wisedome to know or iustice to hate or power to punish sufficiently the grieuousnes of mans sinnes We will not stand vpon the Deniall but this chance might be sent vpon these persons as a punishment of God in regard of their lesser or veniall sinnes seing euen Martyrdome it selfe the death most glorious of all other may be inflicted as a punishment in this kind ● Mach. 6.14 as the Machabees Martirs sayd Nos propeccatis nostris ista patimur At least they that suffer may ought to make that accoūt as S. Cyprian counselleth Decet Martyres verecundos esse Cyprian in exort Martyr supplicia sua peccatis ascribere non se de passione iactare Wherfore these woūded Catholike men and women supposing in Christian humility this to haue byn the stroake of Gods hande for their sinnes how properly might one of them haue turned vnto the Puritan with the wordes of holy Iob Iob. 19 22. Haue pitty haue pitty on me for the hand of God hath strucken me for my sinnes as you suppose and I do not deny yet the nūber of them how great or small they are God knowes much better then you do Deserued I punishmēt Behold these bleeding woundes witnesse I haue already had my punishment at the handes of the liuing God Creatures may well spare me at least you my friendes allyed vnto me both in nature and country whome the like mortality may not I say the like iniquity makes liable vnto the same mischance Call to mind the saying of our Sauiour vnto the eager enemyes of the guilty Woman He that amongst you is without sinne let him cast the first stone at her Ioan. 8 7. Quare persequimini me sicut Deus carnibus meis saturamini Why do you pursue me as if your were God Iob. 19.22 innocent from sinne pure from misery your selues yea rather why do you pursue me as if you were more then God eyther more wife to apprehend or more zealous to detest or more stronge to reuenge the greatnes of my sinnes that wheras He after punishment hath set me free you to fill vp the supposed defect of his iudgment would come vpō me with a new supply of your strokes Haue pitty haue pitty on me for the hand of God hath stroken me But these wordes would not haue moued mercilesse harts and so those distressed soules might better as perchance they did lift vp their eyes vnto God in holy Dauid his complaynt Psa 78.27 Quem tu percussisti persecuti sunt super dolorem vulnerum meorum addiderunt ego sum pauper dolēs salus tua Deus suscepit me Whom thou hadst struken they pursued and added new griefe vnto my woundes I am poore and in payne thy saluation hath taken me vp O cruelty of men they had not pitty of me being poore destitute of ayde nor commiseratiō of me bleeding in payne not only outwardly through the woundes of body but also inwardly though griefes and frights of soule They bare no respect vnto me as a thing particularly beholding and belonging vnto thee as one whom thy saluation tooke vp into thy handes out of those ruines If a Tygar or Shee-wolfe hauing a man in her pawes should out of compassion let him free how cruell would he be thought that should seeke to make that man away presently vpon his escape O Lord thyne anger as the Prophet sayth is as fierce as the Shee-beare that hath lost her whelpes Osee 13.8 Whence we may gather how wild and sauage they are that would stone them to death that come bleeding from vnder the hand of thy terrible anger Whome thou hadst struken they pursued and added new griefe vnto my woundes But shall such cruelty passe without punishment No. They shall receaue the greatest punishment that God in his implacable anger can lay vpon men in this life which is set downe in the wordes that next follow Appone iniquitatem super iniquitatem eorum non intrent in iustitiam tuā deleantur de libro viuentium Psal 68.28.29 cum iustis non scribantur Lay vpon them iniquity vpon iniquity and let them neuer enter into thy righteousnes let them be blotted out of the booke of life and not be written amongst the iust And this may be another reason of this permission in regard of Puritans to wit for the greater obduration of the more hoat vnmercifull and obstinate sort of them For as their malice is such as they would if they could loade the Catholike Church with wound vpon wound so God permitting mischances to happen before the eyes of their body that carry some shew of scandall subtracting from before the eyes of their soule the light of his grace to make due inspection vnto them giues them occasions wherby they heape iniquity vpon iniquity filling their hearts more more with malice contēpt till being come to the measure of Gods appoyntmēt they be carried into Hell These iudgmēts of God are so much the more terrible because they least of all regard thē whom they most cōcern being so blinded deluded with the delightful imaginations of selfe-fancy in their interpretation of Scripture as they neuer so much as apprehend the heynousnes of their offence in contēning the perpetuall Christian Tradition of the Church I will not insist vpon this poynt but referre it vnto the inward search of their Conscience desiring them in Christ Iesus and as they tender their saluation that they will call to mind how many thousands of Heretikes haue byn in former Ages that thought thēselues no lesse secure of the truth then they now doe did alledge Scriptures for their errours as fast as they now do and more cleere and expresse then they can doe any yet now burne for euer in hell for their contempt of the Tradition and Authority of the Church Reasons in the behalfe of them that were slayne the happines of their death TO come to the principall intendment of God who in the midst of his iudgments is euer mindfull of his mercyes Psal 33.8 He permitted this mischance for the same cause for which he permitted the misfortune of the Christian army in the holy Land whither by his speciall ordinance they were called agaynst the Saracens Godefred in vita Bern. l. 3. c. 4. Otto Frising in Fred. l. 1. c. 38. Baron Tom. 12. An. 1145. S. Bernard was summoner of