Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	believe_v	hear_v	word_n	1,549	5	4.7559	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47551	That neither temporallitie[s] nor tythes is due to the bishops, prelates nor clergy, by a Gospel rule And that kings, princes and lords temporal, may j[ust]ly take the temporallities and tythes from them, and dispose of the ... the defence and benefit of the kingdom, and the relief of the poor. Proved by the laws and pract[i]ce of twenty Kings of Judah, England, and France as also by the testimonies of the Universities of Oxford and Prague, fifty four of ... nobles of Bohemia and Morania, two hundred and fifty years agone, and als[o] one hundred and twenty authors beside. Together with some directions how gospel ministers ought to have maintenance, according to the gospel rule, and institutions of Iesus Christ. By E. K.	Netherlands. Emancipatiekommissie.	1672 (1672)	Wing K6A; ESTC R218954	82,628	97

shall give an account of your Office at which day that you may stand stedfast and have your Quietus est Sealed with the blood of Christ is my daily prayer to him that suffered death for our sins to whom be all honour and praise for ever Amen Thus much of Mr. Latimer his Letter to King Hen. 8. Eneas Silvius Eneas Silvius before he was Pope in a Letter to the Rector of the University of Collin he said To a true Christian indeed nothing ought to be more desired than the sincerity and pureness of Faith given us of Christ be kept of all men immaculate and if at any time any thing be attempted against the true Doctrine of the Gospel the people ought with one consent to provide lawful remedy and every man to bring with him some water to quench the general fire neither must we fear saith he how we be hated or envyed so we bring the truth with us we must resist every man to his face whether he be Paul or Peter if he walk not directly to the rule of the Gospel This is part of Eneas his Letter which I think with Mr. Latimer's Letter above is sufficient to justifie my Innocency in what I have done in collecting of so many reverend Authors to shew what their judgement and practise hath been according to the word of God though it be not according to the practise of our Prelates now Julian Palmer As all good works are wonderful saith Julian Palmer so this in particular That God hath in all ages stirred up some to bear witness to the Truth against those Usurpers who have and do rob and spoile both Kings and Kingdoms by unjust deteyning Lands and Possessions c. in their hands to which they have no right and do buy false Glosses Excommunications Imprisonments Banishments Scourging Pilloring Persecuting by open violence and secret practises abuse the simple sheep of Christ that do endeavour to serve God and to discover their false usurped wayes rather then they will depart with their dishonest gain and have their Kitchin cooled their Coffers emptied or their Rents and Revenues abated The Protestant Church at Paris The fourth of September 1558. Three or four hundred Christians being assembled in Paris in France to worship God in a private meeting they were seised upon and some escaped and some were taken and imprisoned Who wrote a Letter to the King declaring out of divers Histories what afflictions and calamities from time to time had befallen the Enemies and hinderers of Gods worship for their resisting the free passage of the Gospel Shewing also that when the King did by his Edict hinder the free worship and service of God then did God send War and other Calamities upon him and his Kingdom and when he ceased the execution of such Edicts then he prospered according to his own desires as long as the true worship of God and his Ordinances took place And in the Primative Church while Prelates and Ministers were of small Wealth and sought not their own profit but the glory of God and his Ordinances so long the Truth prospered and prevailed but since the Pope and Prelates began to be Prince like and to usurp Dominion over the Emperour and Kings they have turned the Scripture from the true sence and have attributed the service to themselves which we ow unto God framing a worship according to their own fancy for their private advantage to maintain their usurped Dignities Jurisdictions and Possessions Wherefore your Majaesty may with good and safe Conscience seize upon all their Temporalities and Benefices and imploy them to to their right use which is for your own affairs for the safety of the Kingdom and the easement of your poor Subjects which alone bear the burthen and for the relief of the poor whereas now there is an infinite number in your Kingdom which occupie the greatest and chiefest benefices which never deserved any part of them And consider that alwayes those Emperours and Kings have the best prospered that imbraced the true Christian Faith for the Kings Throne is established in Righteousness Prov. 16.20 28. Anne du Burg. Loys du Farr The true and only way Sir say they to remedy and redress these grievances is that you call a general Councel in your Kingdom your self being the chief in which every thing tending to the worship and service of God may be tried by the word of God in which Council men of parts and faithfulness to God should be heard for God and those that enjoy such Dignities and Possessions be heard how they can prove their holding them by the Scripture to be lawful or else to part with them And your Majesty or some whom you may appoint not corrupted nor interested to either party but indifferunt may report to your Majesty the true sence of the Scripture without partiality and after according to the example of David Solomon Jehoshaphat Hezekiah and Josiah you may remove out of the Church all Idolatry Superstition Will-worship and humane Inventions which is contrary to holy Scripture for God will not own any Plant in his Church that is not of his own planting Here was good Council if it had taken place but mark what followed Anne du Burg a Councellor at Law Loys du Farr a Councellor also who did solicite and intercede in the behalf of those imprisoned Christians were both apprehended and cast into prison the King in a rage threatning du Burg that he with his own eyes would see him burnt but God prevented him for the same day that he so threatned the King in his Justing and breaking their Spears the King received his Deaths wound and it was reported that the King said he was striken for casting the poor Christians wrongfully in prison This was Henry the second French King Origen saith Origen That Princes will not beleive that others have fallen by such means until they fall themselves And they said further If the Emperour Antonius a Pagan and an Idolator seeing himself wrapt with Wars ceased the Persecution which was against the Christians and determined to hear their Causes and Reasons how much more ought you that bear the name of most Chistian King to be careful and diligent to cease the Persecution against poor Christians for until you have heard and lawfully debated our Reasons taken out of Scripture how can your Majesty judge us worthy of such punishments for while we are governed by the word of God neither Fire nor Sword nor the cruelest torments can make us afraid Observe these Expressions Christians may learn good Instructions from some of the heathen I will name some Christian-like expressions of this Pagan Antonius he wrot twelve Books in the first Book he said Let it be thy incessant care as a Roman as a man to perform whatsoever it is that thou art about with true and unfeigned gravity natural affection freedom and justice and go about every action as thy last action free from

the Temporalities so abused as it were by way of Physick to withstand and put a stop to sins saith the University for so much as they are not endowed but with Conditions the which Conditions are broken and the Title of the Gift lost and they that gave the Alms or their Successors ought to correct the offences for as in a just War it is lawful to take away the goods of the outward Enemies so also it is lawful to take away the goods of the Clergy being the inward Enemy by their evil Example they not walking according to the Rules of Christ for inward Enemies are more hurtful than outward and it is said in the 12th Article That there is no greater Heretick nor Antichrist than those Clerks which teach that it is lawful for Priests now under the Law of Grace to be endowed with Temporal Possessions and if there be any Hereticks Apostates or Blasphemers these Clerks be such A Supplication to K. Hen. 8. If it were thought unmeet by the Apostles that they should leave the word of God and serve Tables Acts 6.2 which yet was a work of mercy to serve the Poor can any man be so ignorant as to think it meet and fit that the Prelates should leave the word of God to deal in Temporal matters to keep Courts to set Leases and receive Rents and keep books of Accompts and Rent-Rols c. the Apostles did no such things therefore they cannot be the Successors of the Apostles It was said in a Supplication to King Henry the eighth about the year 1544. That the only infection and pestilent poyson of the Prelates is their great Lordships and Dominion which hath fashioned them with proud Countenances and worldly behaviour more like Heathen Princes than Christ and his Apostles and Christ said to his Apostles the Princes of the Gentiles exercise Dominion c. but it shall not be so among you Mat. 20.26 For Bishops so love their worldly honour that they will not preach the Truth for displeasing of men lest they lose their great Possessions Riches and worldly Offices which is the cause of their sins Thus this pestilent poyson of worldy riches being taken from them the word of God shall flourish faith shall be increased and sin decreased and true obedience shall be observed with all humble obedience to your Majesty 13 It is lawful for the Clergy by their power to take away the Sacrament from the Laity customably offending It is by the like reason lawful for the Secular power to take away the Temporalities from the Clergy they offending customably in not performing the conditions for which the Temporalities were given besides other offences for say they the true and easiest way for directing the Clergy unto Conformity to the life of Christ and his Apostles and most profitable for the Laity the Church is that the Clergy should not be suffered to live contrary unto Christs Institutions to which I shall adde that the Clergy who make such a bussling about Conformity are themselves the greatest and most obstinate Non-conformists in the world The Prelates are the greatest Non-conformists to the Gospel Commandements and Institution of Christ for Christ hath not Instituted that any Gospel Minister should have any Temporalities or Tythes nor to live in such glorious Pomp and State in the world nor to have such Dignities nor exercise such Jurisdictions c. Therefore it belongs to Christian Magistrates to take those Superfluities from them which occasion their sinful revolt and disobedience to the Laws of Christ for by the abundance of Temporalities say they the Worm or Serpent of Pride is sprang up whereupon unsatiable desire and lust is inflamed and thereby proceedeth all kind of Gluttony and Leachery but the Temporalities being taken away every one of these sins will either utterly be taken away or at the least diminished by the contrary virtue induced and brought in The Prophesie of Hildegardis This that is said of taking away the Temporalities from the Clergy seems to be prophesied of by Hildegardis the Virgin whieh Prophecie was approved of in the Council of Trevers by many Bishops of France Italy and Almain St. Bernard being there present she spake on this manner The Kings and other Rulers of the World being stirred up by the just Judgement of God shall set themselves against them and run upon them saying We will not have these men to rule over us with their rich Houses and great Possessions and other worldly Riches over which we are ordained to be Lords and Rulers wherefore let us take away from them that which they do not justly but wrongfully possess c. for the Spirituality should not possess more then necessity doth require that where there is more it should be taken away and given to the needy This spake that Virgin Prophetess plainly foreshewing the taking away the Temporalities from the Clergy by the secular Power 14 Gregory St. Gregory writ to the Emperour Mauritius when he persecuted him I do believe saith he that you please God the better in so persecuting me which have been so evil a servant unto him And Pope Leo Pope Leo. submitted himself unto Lodovicus the Emperour as in 2. quest 7. If we have done any thing incompetently or that we have not observed the upright path and way of Equity amongst Subjects we will amend the same either by your own judgement or by the advice and judgement of those which you shall appoint for that purpose for if we which ought to correct and punish other mens faults do commit more grievous our selves we are not then the Disciples of the Truth but as with sorrow we speak it we shall be above all others the Masters of Error Thus much concerning the Arguments of the University of Prague And to confirm the Writings and Opinion of John Wickliffe the Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford with the whole Congregation of the Masters with one consent gave this Testimony of him and said The Testimony of the University of Oxford in behalf of John Wickliffe For the special good will and care which we bear unto John Wickliffe sometime Child of this Vniversity and Professor of Divinity moving and stirring our minds as his manners and conditions required no less with one mind voice and testimony we do witness all his conditions and doings throughout his whole life to have been most sincere and commendable whose honest manners and conditions profoundness of Learning and most redolent Renown and Fame we desire the more earnestly to be notified and known unto all the Faithful for that we understand the maturity and ripeness of his Conversation his diligent Labours and Travels to tend to the praise of God the help and safegard of others and the profit of the Church Wherefore wee signifie unto you by these Presents That his Conversation from his youth upward unto the time of his death was so praise worthy and honest that never at any time was there

I have mentioned once before in his Exhortative Epistle printed at Basil saith I say yet once again and that in the zeal of the Lord as he is my Judge I wish if his gracious pleasure so were that first the Kings Majesty and so all those to whom God hath given power and authority on Earth may throughly see and perceive how that not only the bloudy Bear and Wolf of Rome but also the most part of other Bishops and stout sturdy Canons of Cathedral Churches with other petty Prowlers and prestigious Priests of Baal in all Realms of Christendom especially in England doe roar abroad like Lyons fret like angry Bears and bite like cruel Wolves clustring together like swarmes of Adders in a Dunghil or most wily subtile Serpents to uphold preserve their Interest Paul admonished us of them that after his departing grievous Wolves should enter not sparing the flock Acts 20.29 These spiritual man-hunters are the very offspring of Cain Children of Caiaphas and Successors of Simon Magus as their Doctrine and Living declare Most cruel enemies have they been in all ages to the Verity of God and most fierce Persecutors of Christ and his Church Marvel not ye Bishops and Prelates saith he though I thus in the zeal of Elias and Phineas stomach against your sturdy stubborness for never was any tyranny ministred upon Christs mistical members but by your procurement never did Christ send such bloudy Apostles and two horned Warriers but the Devils Vicar-Antichrist sent them who is the deadly destroyer of faithful Beleivers c. and so he goes on I reckon it therfore saith he high time for all Christian Princes which pretend to receive the Gospel of Salvation and to live in peace and tranquillity for ever to cast the Bishops out of Privy Councels and utterly to seclude you from all administrations till such time as they find you no longer Wolves but faithful Feeders no Destroyers but gentle Teachers for consider your beginning never came you in with your Miters Robes and Rings c. it the door as did the poor Apostles but by the window unrequired like Robbers Thieves and Man-quellers with Symon Magus Marcion and Menander never was your proud pontifical power of our heavenly Fathers planting and therefore must be rooted up Matt. 15.13 If any thing under Heaven hath need of Reformation let them that minde any Godlyness think this to be one for if these be not spiritual Spiritual Thieves Soul-murtherers Hereticks Schismaticks Church-robbers Rebels and Traitors to God and man where are any to be looked for in the world for nothing can they do but work daily mischief as well may they be spared in the Common wealth saith he as Kites Crows Buzzards Polcats Rats Weasles Otters Wolves and Foxes bodily Fleas or flesh Flies or other devouring noysome Vermin for so long as they sit in the Parliament-house the Gospel shall be kept under and Christ persecuted in his faithful members take me not here saith he that I condemn any Bishop or Priest that is godly doing those Offices the Scripture commandeth as preaching the Gospel and providing for the poor c. but against bloudy Butchers that murther Gods people and make havock of Christs Congregation to maintain Jewish Ceremonies and Paganish Superstition in the Christian Church these are not Bishops but Sheep-biters Tyrants Tormentors and the Devils slaughter men but such as in poverty preach the Gospel provide for the poor rebuke the wicked world of Pride Idolatry Hypocrisie they are not only worthy of a competent living but worthy of double honour but from the inordinate excess of Riches Bishops and Prelates ought of all men to be sequestred considering that the wicked nature of Mamon is alwaies to corrupt yea the very Elect of God were not more merciful saith he Thus as you have heared by these Testimonies above Lord Bishops standing in the Church with their Dignities and Jurisdictions is not of Gods institution but by men yet God suffers such kind of Adversaries in the Church saith Mr. Fox in Acts and Monuments page 1440. who under the name of the Church maintain a worldly State and Kingdom and because they cannot uphold their cause by Scripture the holy word of God they bear it out with outfacing railing and slandering making Princes and People believe that all are Scismaticks Rebels and what not and subverters of the Common wealth who soever that dare although it be by plain Scripture to speak against their doings As it is written of the Emperour that when he had burned Rome six dayes and seven nights he made Proclamation that the innocent Christians had set the City on fire to stir up the people against them whereby he caused them to be burned and destroyed as Rebels and Traitors See Suetonius in Nerone Melancton Melancton in an Epistle to King Hen. 8. saith That long and horrible darkness hath been in the Church of Christ that mens traditions not only have been a yoak to good mens Consciences but also which is worse they have been reputed for Gods holy Service to the great dishonour of God and hindrance of his true worship and the Keyes were abused to the maintenance of usurped tyranny and Ceremonies mens inventions and it is not light offence to set up new kinds of worshiping and serving God such presumption God doth horribly detest the manner of his worship is known in his word only and he will not hale Religion to be invented by mens devise for so the Alcaron and all Religion in all Nations might be approved and allowed of Therefore saith the Wise man In all thy wayes acknowledge God and lean not unto thine own understanding Prov. 3.5 6. God hath commanded us to hear Christ Acts 3.22 and not to hear the invention of subtile politick heads which frame Religion for their own Lucre and advantage we ought not to dissemble in Gods matters but use them as the Scripture speaketh for no service nor worship pertaining to God ought to be set up by mans device and Bishops will never cease to rage against the Church of Christ without mercy or pity for them the Devil useth as Instruments and Ministers of his malice and fury against Christ in his members Luther Luther in his answer to the Popes Bull saith That any Fool Ass or Blockhead may condemn a man of Error by saying I like it not I deny it I will not have it so without any reason from Scripture Is not thy whorish face ashamed to dare to set the trifling vanities of your own bare words of the Canons and Institutions of your own inventions against the Thunderbolts of Gods Word if such reasoning were sufficient to condemn men without Scripture why may we not turn Turks Hereticks Jews or Atheists as well as Papists Steven Gardiner Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester in his Book de vera Obedientia saith Though it be granted that Peter had the preferment of the first name or place in the Order of the

temporalities but Prelates have been unfaithful Stewards and therefore it is high time to compell them to deliver up their Stewardship that they may be no longer Stewards for the Priests as they call themselves and desire to be called ought to have no temporal possessions or inheritance for their service as Eze. 44.28 I am their Inheritance ye shall give them no possession in Israel I am their possession yea even the Primate himself as he expecteth to be called who thinks himself to be Successor to Aaron cannot by Aarons example possess any temporalities as in Num. 18.20 And the Lord spake unto Aaron then shalt have no inheritance in their land neither shalt thou have any part amongst them I am thy part and thine inheritance among the Children of Israel and Josh 13.33 But unto the tribe of Levi Moses gave not any inheritance the Lord God of Israel was their inheritance If Prelates consciences were not seared as with an hot iron how could they pretend any right to Temporal possessions either by example of the Levitical Priesthood unto whom you see Temporal possessions was prohibited neither by the example of Jesus Christ nor his Apostles if it were not as Cardinal Aralatensis said in the Council of Basil that Prelates value their Temporalities above their Spiritualities Therefore if you observe the rule of Christ by their Fruits you may know them and their Fruits in that way hath been the occasion to bring in and to uphold and maintain Antichrist the Pope in his Throne for if it were not for his great Temporal possessions he could not domineer over Emperors Kings and Princes as he hath done and whilst Prelates possess their Temporalities they do uphold him in his Throne for both of them are one upheld by the other if once the one fall the other will shortly follow Angelo Cararo Whosoever saith Angelo Cararo beholds the surpassing state and magnificence of the Church and Court of Rome above other Kings and Princes cannot but wonder that she upon so slender a foundation and so far from the intention of her Founders should raise her self to so proud a height as to turn those benefits she hath received against and to the prejudice of them that gave her those possessions for the Canonists other Emissaries of that Court study nothing more than how to strengthen and extend their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and abase and demolish the power of Secular Princes if they can possible A Book of the Image of a Bishop In a Book called The Image of a Christian Bishop and of a Counterfeit Bishop set out in the year 1539. he speaks of some that he calls shadows of Bishops that have raised themselves to dominion and Lordship against both God and man against reason common sence and judgement after the nature of Tyrants which rule only by the wrath and indignation of God for Prelates saith he if they be not good and virtuous to promote the word of God unfeignedly with all their hearts they are Wolves and cruel murtherers of Souls much like as if Satan should have a Mitre on his head and Rings on his fingers and should sit in a Chair to rule the people for B●shops that do not preach the pure word of God they are as much to be eschewed as the Devil himself And whereas Bishops exercise their tyranny over men under pretence of Conformity to keep men from sedition and strife he saith the word of God doth not stir up to sedition and strife but the stubborn obstinate disobedience of Bishops themselves against the truth and their rage against the word of God is the cause of sedition for whosoever receives the word of God that man raises not up sedition albeit he no longer fears such vain Buggs nor worship such Episcopal Puppets for since he knows the word of God he doth not fear nor reverence their vain humane Innovations and Traditions But wilt thou that I tell thee at one word that they are they are Wolves Tyrants Traytors Man-quellers monsters of the World burthens of the Earth the Apostles of Antichrist to corrupt and destroy the Gospel And therefore it is the part and duty of all Christian men with the word of God to destroy and pluck up by the roots them and their Kingdom which our heavenly Father hath not planted who by their Tyranny destroy the Gospel Institutions of Christ to establish their own Institutions so that if there be any Christianity in our minds and breasts we ought saith he to speak unto the King for a Reformation Thus he and much more to this purpose See Mr. Prynns Book of the execrable Treasons Conspiracies and Rebellions of Prelates pag. 389 390 394. William Wroughton William Wroughton in his rescuing of the Roman Fox dedicated to King Hen. 8. We have saith he put down some of the Orders of the World there remains yet two viz. the pompous Bishops and the dependants thereon and the gray Fryers which if they were put down also as well as the other I reckon that there would not be any Kingdom wherein Christ would more reign than in England and there he proves at large the Prelates Canon Law to be the Popes Law and that so long as the Bishops maintain it in England they maintain the Pope in his Soveraignty and Legislative power in England Thus and more to the same purpose Roderick Morce To the very same purpose Roderick Morce in his Complaint to the Parliament the 37 of Hen. 8. writes thus The whole Body of the pestiferous Canon Law according to which Judgement is given through the Realm so that we are still in Egyptian bondage to the Popes Law And so long as ye walk in those wicked Laws of Antichrist the Pope and maintain his Knights the Bishops in such inordinate riches and unlawfull Authority so long ye shall never banish that monstrous beast the Pope out of England yea and it shall be a means saith he in process of time to bring us into bondage to the Pope again and that knows our forked Caps full well meaning Mitres Wherefore if you will banish the Pope you must fell down to the ground these rotten posts the Bishops c. And in another place he said that one Bishop one Dean or Colledge or House of Canons hath ever done more mischief than ten other Religious Houses The King saith he hath done well in weeding the Garden of England but yet he hath left the fowlest stinking weeds standing the pompous Bishops Canons of Colledges and Deans c. But now saith he I will speak no more against the particular Pope seeing every Bishop now is a Pope Martin Bucer Martin Bucer professors of Divinity in Cambridge writ to King Edward the sixth that the reformation of the Church could never be expected from the Bishops and said that the wealth of Princes which ought to be bestowed upon faithful Ministers upon Schools and upon the Poor the Prelates sacraligiously spend it in ryot and