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	power_n	spiritual_a	1,510	5	6.4164	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13111	The looking-glasse of schisme wherein by a briefe and true narration of the execrable murders, done by Enoch ap Evan, a downe-right separatist, on the bodies of his mother and brother, with the cause mooving him thereunto, the disobedience of that sect, against royall majesty, and the lawes of our Church is plainly set forth. By Peter Studley, Master of Arts, and minister of Gods Word, in Shrevvsbury.	Studley, Peter, 1587 or 8-1648.	1634 (1634)	STC 23403; ESTC S117932	73,005	313

bosomes the Iustice and Equity of the Kings cause now taken in hand by impressions of sensible feare making them to tremble at the mention of Humane Authority as it is the execution of divine power for Temporall government For were their persons as cleare and innocent as they pretend by ostentation of the uprightnesse of their consciences in the cause of GOD or their judgements right and sound in that they hold with dissent from their wise superiours or their cause it selfe a matter of importance wherein the Honour or Dishonour of GOD stands Interessed and Ingaged surely then the LORD would fortifie and adde spiritual vigour to their masculine and high spirits and not suffer them to shrinke under the practice of Humane power urged for their correction and amendment And let me further certifie this irregular generation that if their fancies had been of GOD and decreed for His fetled ordinance It had not received such a wound as of late it hath done by the hand of Princely power which already hath made their building to nod and totter and incline to subversion For the Argument of Gamaliel uttered by the present inspiration of GOD'S Spirit is invincible Act. 5.39 Mans power cannot overthrow that which is of GOD which impregnable and sacred Truth I will demonstrate in this syllogisticall processe Whatsoever is of GOD decreed for continuance and propagation Major can neither bee dissolved by Humane power nor weakened and abated This Novell Toy of resisting authority Minor is by Humane power weakened and abated and drawes on to dissolution Therefore it is not of GOD by ordinance for Propagation Conclusio The whole force of this Argument so clear and conclusive is drawne from the practice of GOD Himselfe in the Primitive infancie of the Christian Church when the Roman Tyrants mighty in power and extention of authority over most parts of the habitable earth raged against the glory of our LORD IESUS CHRIST in the lustre of His Gospell and vowed the extinction of His Name and memory but the more their fury increased and insulted over the poore sheepe of CHRIST daily dragged unto slaughter by Martyrdome the more they found to the check of their infidell pride and immanity that Sanguis Martyrum erat semen Ecclesiae The bloud of Martyrs was the springing seed of the Church both for the increase of the number of professors and dilatation of the glory and power of our SAVIOUR If any shal reply unto mee that Humane power may for a time suppresse the outward growth and spreading of this disobedience to our King and his Lawes yet for as much as they are godly forsooth and doe it for conscience sake their practice will still retaine spirituall heat and vigorous warmth in the root and secret heart thereof and thereby sprout out againe and declare it selfe to bee of the LORD'S plantation To these men I reply no more but thus That I wish all such persons to suspend their owne rash and sinister perswasions for a time and to expect the event of the LORD'S will therein which in doubtfull cases is never knowne but by the sensible and apparent manifestation thereof 51 Now for this firy fancie and exquisite fascination of our Non-conformity I will freely and openly deliver my opinion thereof and that is this That when she was in her greatest ruffe and glory deckt with all the plumes of her pride and best acceptation which ever she had in this Kingdome I conceive of her that then even then she was no more but meretrix cerussata a whited painted and artificially coloured strumpet exposing her selfe to her most profitable wooers and entertainers But now that by time and age shee is become Rugosa cadaverosa wrinckled and decayed shee goes on I hope to her grave with infamie and dishonour The reason of my opinion is this I suppose that if her stoutest champions who have long with the secret increase of their private estates supported her glory could now come off fairely from her without detriment to their livelihood and eclipse of the brightnesse of their former reputation for Piety and Sincerity That then not one of them would either depart this Land or endure to bee silenced and restrained from preaching but being shut up in a strait by reflecting on their owne hearts and calling to minde what high and transcendent prayses they have in corners given to this their fancie the engine and instrument of all their delusions and the artificial and fine-wrought key whereby they have opened the Closets and Cabinets of their deare and privat friends if now they should shrinke from it they overthrow for ever the reputation of their integrity And therefore having within their owne bosomes a troublesome conflict betweene their hearts puffed up with the remembrance of their late glory and deare esteeme among their friends and their consciences now secretly prompting them that the grounds of their Schisme were things light triviall and of no moment The pride of their hearts beares downe with strong power the plea of their consciences and makes them resolve rather to endure a silencing with hope to retaine the under-hand benevolences of their tender hearted friends than to supplant the pleasing contentments they have received to themselves in appropriating to themselves the words of GOD's Spirit Prov. 12.26 The righteous man is more excellent than his neighbour But let such men call to minde the judgements of GOD's wrath against that slothfull person Matt. 25.30 Who wrapped up his Talent in a Napkin and hid it in the earth For if Saint Paul could say in the case of planting of Churches 1 Cor. 9.16 Necessitie is laid upon mee yea woe is mee if I preach not the Gospell I cannot yet understand nor themselves neither of any dispensation or relaxation that Ministers have in these dayes to sit idle at home in vayne speculations and to neglect the Watering of those Churches and feeding of those flockes which by other mens labours have beene prepared and made ready to their Ministry Yet this liberty to please themselves by voluntary or imposed silence and the Iustice and Aequitie thereof on their parts in submitting to so sharpe a censure is still by them constantly assevered And thereby they strive to uphold the good conceits which their friends have of the puritie of their consciences and of the Iniquity Idolatry and Prophanenesse of those Antichristian Ceremonies which are urged against them for better termes or Titles they know right well they never afford them And this is the true cause why I was so bold and plaine with them as to tearme their practice of Non-conformity by the odious name of a Painted Strumpet because a learned Philosopher describing the Arts and subtilties of such wanton and uncleane persons sayes of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As Strumpets wish all sorts of happinesse may befail their lovers except understanding and wisdome to discover their own wickednes so doe flatterers

the clock in the morning on Sunday the seventh of Iuly they brought him forward to the Goale in Shrewsbury When the Keeper of the Prison read his Mittimus and understood his facts he loaded him with irons an● committed him to the common lodging among malefactors of his owne qualitie 18 When the rumour o● Enoch's murders and imprisonment was divulged abroad 〈◊〉 was wonderfull to see how people of all qualities resorted unto him questioned with him and although altogether unable to administer either counsell or comfort to a ma●● of his disconsolate condition● yet many of them were forward and busie to cloud and darken the truth of that very cause and onely cause which he himself constantly alleaged of his provocation to these facts For divers who affected not the Ceremonies of our Church with whom this County and this Towne have of late abounded could not endure to heare that a Brother of their society and opinion should so staine and dishonour the sanctity of their holy Profession as to imbrue his accursed hands in her bloud who had conceived and nourished him in her wombe Hence great care was taken and all policies imployed to perswade the Malefactor to assigne some other cause and probable reason of these murders and not any touch of his dislike of Church Ceremonies Many Ministers of our Countie and some of our Towne repayred unto him and every man talked and reasoned with him as to his owne understanding seemed best pleasing And hee freely confessed to al men that upon difference in opinions betweene him and his brother touching the Gesture in the Communion his wrath conceived against him turned into rage and incensed his heart to the murder of him 19 It came into my heart to go visit this fellow and being come to the Prison-house I requested the Gaolour to le● me have a sight of the Prisone● in a private roome He instantly commanded one of his servants to bring him unto meet Enoch being come I told him in the presence of the Keeper and his servant that I was come to see him not to satisfie curiosity nor to urge and presse questions unto him but with a cleare and pure intention by laying the judgements of God's wrath before his eyes to strike his conscience with the sight and sense of his great wickednesse and afterwards to minister those directions whereby to bring him to repentance and the reconciled favour of GOD. My first question with him was this Min. Thinkest thou Enoch that thy mother who conceived and bred thee in her wombe with many pangs and throwes did ever harbour in her heart a thought or suspition that when thou wast arrived to mans estate and shee to her aged yeares thy unnaturall rage should draw her bloud and separate her head from he● shoulders Enoch To this question of of mine he made no answer at all but lifted up his hands a little and cast downe his head with great confusion and perturbation of soule Min. I said unto him again Enoch I am come with purpose of my heart to doe thee good and if thou wilt deale truly with me and with thine owne soule thou shalt find me both able and desirous to doe thee good He gave me thanks for my kindnesse and was very willing and desirous to entertaine my advise Hereupon 〈◊〉 making benefit to my selfe o● that readinesse I found in him to hearken unto mee said further Min. Enoch I charge your conscience by that Authoritie which CHRIST our LORD hath given to me as a Minister of His sacred Gospel that you doe impart unto mee the true moving cause or causes which stirred you up to these unnaturall facts for unlesse I search your wounds to the bottome Enoch assure your selfe I shall never bee able to apply any solid comforts unto you but they will rankle in your soule and prove incurable Enoch Sir since you charge and presse my conscience herewith I will as truly confesse to you as I will doe to CHRIST Himselfe The True and the only cause which instigated mee to these facts was my Zeale to the Word of GOD. Min. I replied that zeale for GOD's glory or for His Word must be qualified with command from GOD Himselfe either by expresse declaration of His will by Oracle and lively voice or else which is equivalent thereunto By the full and undoubted assurance of a divine instinct and motion of GOD's Spirit But this latter I told him under The setled estate of the Church of the New Testament was peculiar onely in matters of this nature unto the persons of the Apostles of our LORD and descended not unto our times The Apostle Peter y Act. 5.5.10 strucke with present death Ananias and Saphira his wife but the power of that stroke came directly and immediately from GOD Himselfe as a miraculous act of His wrath against their hypocrisie and a divine declaration of the truth of his Apostolicall Doctrine and calling But Enoch your fact agreeth not with this but hath some correspondence with the passionate furious and irregular zeale of Iames and Iohn z Luke 9.54 Who desired our LORD to give them leave to call for fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans and were for their unsanctified rage sharply checkt by our LORD and SAVIOUR who intimated unto them that GOD's Spirit in men is milde and gentle according to that perpetuall Canon and rule a Iames 3.17 The Wisdome that is from above is pure peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partialitie without Hypocrisie But Satans spirit and motions are raging and furious exciting to bloud and murder What say you now Enoch to your owne facts doe you like or dislike them Enoch Sir I know not whether I have done well or ill Min. All facts of this nature are undoubtedly the desperate effects of Satanical suggestions covered and coloured over with the faire pretence of zeale flowing from divine inspirations onely to mitigate and allay the troubles of conscience incident thereunto What say you to this Enoch I know that Satan hath no power to prevaile with the true children o● GOD. Min. Doe you perswade your selfe to be the true childe of GOD and actually in the state of grace having committed these execrable facts your fact is the very same with that of Cain and in one most fearefull degree of unnaturall crueltie farre surmounts his and hee is branded with the hellish marke b 1 Iohn 3.12 of Satans prevailing with him And how you should bee free from the prevailing power of Satan in your heart and over you for my part I yet understand not For wee are ever to judge of the nature strength and prevailing of Temptations by the reall acts which are effected and produced by them Our owne imaginations which are liable to errour flattery and seducement are no rule by which either our owne or other mens judgements are to be guided and directed Enoch I will not let go my

other cause But for other cause or causes he never pleaded any for himselfe but totally excluded all other causes Therefore he included this Cause and this Onely that because Iohn kneeled at the receiving of the sacred Communion Enoch his desperately enraged brother slew him This Argument is syllogisticall the true processe ●●rationall Induction and the force thereof is so cleare conclusive and binding that whether his Non-conformed Brethren will accept or reject the word Onely the strength 〈◊〉 the thing affirmed remaines pregnant dilucidate and 〈◊〉 vincible 28 Thus leaving the true and onely cause of these flagitious murders fully assoiled from all pretense of colourable opposition I proceed to lay open unto you what I observed in the inward disposition of the minde of this man He was an high-minded fellow in spirituall matters and 〈◊〉 strongly opinioned of his owne particular Election Adoption and radication in grace The whatsoever advice I gave him from time to time for I was eighteene times with him pressing him to Humiliation Repentance Faith Teares Prayer Confession and the like spirituall Actions Hee seemed very thankfully to accept from mee and in token of his gratitude hee ordinarily used to kisse my hand and told mee upon all visitations of him that he spent his whole time in the exercise of these gratious vertues But they who lived in the house with him and diligently noted the whole tenour of his life and actions after his imprisonment could not discover any Symptomes or consequents of the practice of these pretended vertues for neither was his countenance dejected his complexion impaired or his meales in quantity abated He fed as plentifully dranke as liberally discoursed as freely as any person did who dieted at the same table with him payed the same rates of weekely charge though there detained not as malefactors but prisoners for debt He was frequent and much in poring on the Bible and still he told me that he used the helpe of reading to quicken his spirituall meditations and to sharpen his practice of repentance of faith and prayer But I rejoynēd unto him that folitarinesse and retired privacie voided of all other imployments were the best meanes of quickning devotion by putting his soule into Soliloquie with GOD. Reading I told him for a man in his case was not so proper and fit for his soule as spirituall ejaculations of his heart unto GOD in fervent devotion of sighes of prayers of confession For his reading not only stirred up in him many By-thoughts begetting questions impertinent to his present condition and state but also made him incline unto and arrogate too much to his owne private opinions the desperate supplanters of his miserable soule The best course I affirmed for a man in his case to take was to renounce his owne judgement will and affections which had alreadie enthralled him to Satan and to apply himselfe to the duties enjoyned him by GOD's Ministers and for questions emergent which might concerne him to take directions therein from them whose knowledge was more ripe judgements more exact as confirmed by experience of GOD's love and favour and their hearts better composed to piety charity and unity than his owne wilde and perturbed affections were Yet notwithstanding all my love and care and paines taken to do him good he would stil run his owne courses and follow the wayes of his owne heart By which he lay stil exposed to the cunning stratagems of Satan b●● politike supplanter For in the arrogant pride of his over warning spirit he judged his owne ignorant and ungoverned heart as well able by learned and judicious counsell to prescribe unto himselfe as all the grave pious and learned Ministers in this Land could have done such was the force of spirituall delusions wherewith Satan had blinded and detained him captive 29 He was never observed in more than six weekes imprisonment to shed one teare in testimonie of sorrow for his crying sinnes or to note the presence of GOD's Spirit within him No not although two of his sisters joyning in prayer with mee upon their knees plentifully powred them forth in his behalfe Indeed I doe freely and ingenuously make knowne to the World that his complexion was not apt for teares but the present distresse of his soule under the fearefull expectation of GOD's confounding wrath justly provoked might either have terrified or mollified him to some signes of humiliation and sorrow 30 When hee was brought before the Reverend and Honourable Iudges no consternation of soule appeared in him either from the sense of his owne wickednesse or from the Gravitie of their Persons justly made terrible to malefactours by the weight of their authoritie But where grace sanctifies not to the Intenerating of the heart there pride will puffe up and be displayed in the countenance For as the Scriptures report l 1 Sam. 15.32 of Agag King of the Amalekites that being a captive prisoner and called to appeare before King Saul his Lord by conquest that he came Delicately before him and said in his heart Surely the bitternesse of death is past So this Prisoner the day before the comming in of the Iudges called for a Barbour to trimme him as if this malefactour had a desire in his heart that some elegancie of aspect darting from his countenance might appeare unto them when hee came before them This I observed disliked and to his face in the presence of many persons reproved in him and told him that a face more horrid and over-growne with haire better beseemed the horrour of his facts The evidence of his murders so often published to the world by his free and voluntary confession might have prevented the formal processe of Law by Iury conviction and casting and have put him into the power of the Iudge for Sentence of death from his own acknowledgement and expression of his guilt But for more strength of justice and regularitie of proceeding the Iury as I heard found him guilty and made him liable to Sentence of death which Sentence after it was pronounced against him the place where and the manner of his execution for the consequents thereof by hanging in a frame of iron being not expressed unto him he was no more altered in his countenance or changed in his behaviour than if no terrible voice of death had beene uttered unto him On Saturday the seventeenth of August 1633 after he was adjudged to death I came to him in the afternone partly to observe his behaviour and deportment after the horror of Iudgement passed on him but principally by counsel accommodate to his present condition to prepare him for a penitētial dissolution And having shut up my self and him into a private roome and by directions and prayer to GOD for him prepared him for death in the best manner I was able I desired him with pressing perswasions to reveale unto me the person or persons by whose politike seducements hee was drawne to those opinions so desperate and raging in

circumference of their own In-conformity But let them delude and flatter themselves in their Toyish Imaginations as long as they will and persist to affront Authoritie in the person of their Prince and the commaund of his Lawes It is my hope and confidence and I trust all good men concurre with me therein That as the Lord in mercy and holy love unto his Church among us hath given Pure Wisedome to his Anointed Vice-gerent to discover these obliquities and Impostures and also Royall courage to attempt the reformation and suppression thereof So he will also strengthen and uphold his Princely Arme in his proceedings therein till he have brought the same to a gratious and to a glorious perfection And then will this Church and Kingdome know both in the generall body therof and also more specially in these Non-conformists theselves both Ecclesiasticall and Secular when their eyes are opened to behold their owne errours That they have beene long deteyned and deluded in adoring vaine fantasies not worth the regarding And then they will also blesse and magnifie the LORD'S great mercies and returne the Tribute of thankfull and of loyal hearts to their gratious Sovereigne by whose pious care so laudable and glorious a work hath beene prospered and atchieved For though now errors in their soules do dimme darken and even blinde the eye of their Iudgements and not suffer them with the cleere light of sanctified Reason to behold this wholesome and profitable truth shine forth unto them Namely That Vnitie and Peace betweene the Prince and his People and with all the People mutually among themselves are the true and proper glory of Earthly Kingdomes typically figuring the celestial Vnity in blessednes and glory in the Triumphant Church of GOD And that Schisme Division of any people into variety of opinions and affections is the bane and subversion of the Tranquillity of a Church Nation resembling the confusions and perturbations of satans infernal regiment Then will they cleerely see to the infinite joy and comfort of their own soules that this disobedience to Royall Majesty and prudent lawes for things of indifferent nature is no more but a selfe-pleasing fantafie which every good man may verie well spare and yet remaine a faithfull sonne to GOD his Father a sound member of that particular Church wherein he was baptised and a loyall and obedient subject to the Majesty of that gratious Prince in whose Dition and Principality he first drew his native breath and being And if these men will but entertaine that one rule of our LORD and SAVIOUR IESUS CHRIST Matth. 11.28 Learne of me for I am meeke and lowly in heart and yee shall finde rest for your soule And by this rule wil strive to take downe the height of their owne elate and haughty spirits and humble themselves to submit to the wisedome of their King and State and to suspect their owne wisdomes as every wise man ought to doe surely then the things proposed unto them for obedience and the setling of uniformitie over the body of this Church and Kingdome will shortly be universally admitted and pleasingly entertained And when they have cast away that prejudicate and troublesome opinion which they have of the persons of the Bishops who for their wisdome piety gravity sincerity deserve all due respect of veneration to bee given unto them Then the blessed experience of the manifold commodities which accompany peace and unity will not onely prove an inward comfort to their soules but will also make them to bee greatly offended with themselves for their obstinate contumacie against their lawful Superiours when they shall cal to minde how long they have deprived themselves of so great a blessing as is Vnitie of Heart Minde and Iudgement by dividing themselves from the obedience of their spirituall Mother the Orthodox and pure Church of GOD in this Kingdome For in all humane matters and these of ceremonies are no other all sound knowledge and judgement is attained by experience which though it be said to be the Mistresse of fooles by shewing unto them and imprinting on their hearts their manifold errours yet she is no foolish mistresse but the best informer and reformer of our understandings and wills by which it pleaseth GOD to reduce from wandering His straying sheepe and gratiously confine them within His owne fold witnesse the wanton Prodigall who running riot from his father and from the true principles of knowledge in his owne soule never returned againe to GOD or to himselfe till sensible experience of his owne vanity had pinched him and made him as the Scriptures report 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 15.17 to come home to himselfe by the gratious view of his errors directed thereunto by the Spirit of God And these Non-conformists whether Church-men or Lay-men they are no other but Wanton and Prodigall fugitives and Run-awayes from their spirituall Father the LORD who requires of us and them 1 Pet. 2.14 To submit our selves to every ordinance of men for the LORD'S sake And fugitives also they are from their Politike Father the King by rejecting his Authority given him by GOD. And till some few gentle stripes with the Rod of Princely power prove unto them as the famine did to the Prodigall open their eyes and give them sensible impression and experience of their sullen Pride and Vanity they wil never returne soundly to their GOD to their Prince to themselves but they will riotize in selfe-opinions and deluded imaginations to the hazard and endangering of their owne soules by incurring the wrath of God And for mine owne part I am perswaded that if all the Non-conformed Ministers in this Church were divided into foure equal parts three of them have never read any controversies of our Church-discipline but perhaps some of the railing Libels of Master Cartwright and his companions a part by themselves which passe underhand from man to man amongst them without the learned Antidots of contrary writings to expell the maligne poison and infection therof But these men looke only upon the practise of the times and seeing that to incline to this faction is a faire way of thriving both in reputation of credit with this sort of people and also in meanes of livelihood by private and underhand Benevolences Gratuities Contributions they are thereby inticed on to these disloyall and factious courses which in multitudes of Lay-persons of severall rankes and degrees is growne to a great height of strength and power And yet neither their multitudes nor their power so great but that wise men may discover in them that they are not persons of any courage to hold out opposition against Authority to the incurring of danger either to their persons or to their estates which cowardize of Spirit in persons otherwise of so high insolent and daring spirits as they are plainly convinceth the truth of the over-ruling hand of GOD'S power in all mens hearts and also pleadeth and acteth in their owne