Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bishop_n	church_n	rome_n	6,168	5	7.0527	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A05223	Dutifull and respective considerations vpon foure seuerall heads of proofe and triall in matters of religion Proposed by the high and mighty prince, Iames King of Great Britayne, France, and Ireland &c. in his late booke of premonition to all christian princes, for clearing his royall person from the imputation of heresy. By a late minister & preacher in England.; Dutifull and respective considerations upon foure severall heads of proofe and triall in matters of religion.	Leech, Humphrey, 1571-1629.; Parsons, Robert, 1546-1610. aut	1609 (1609)	STC 15362.5; ESTC S100271	179,103	260

could to proceed in his suite yet if the nyne other of equall worth and weight with him should be of contrary opinion disswade him frō the suite assuring him vpon their learning that he would be cast in the same yea and condemned if he proceeded therein would not this man now beginne to consider more seriously of his suite intended Of his right pretended Would he not view ouer and ouer his writings examine all his euidences againe and againe least in aspiring to be made for euer he chance for euer to be vndone Euē so the case standeth in the point we haue in hand Here is a royall banquet prouided for your Princely Maiesty here is a Princely inheritance indeed an incorruptible Diademe of glory prepared for your Excellency this banquet is not to continew for an hundred and fourescore dayes as that of Assuerus did to set forth the maiesty of an earthly Monarch but it endureth for euer and euer throughout all eternity to disclose the honour and power and glory and riches of the heauenly Diety diuine Omnipotency the food of this banquet is neither earthly nor materiall but heauenly and spirituall Agnus occisus ab origine mundi It is the lambe slaine from the beginning of the world that is to be set and serued on this table nay Deus est qui nobis futurus est omnia in ommbus It is Almighty God himselfe who will then as S. Paul teacheth become vnto vs all in all that is all in the eye for our vision and all in the tast for our refection and all in the touch for our fruition all in the eare of our consolation and all in our smell for delectation in a word all in the senses of our body and all in the faculties of our soule Deus omnia in omnibus for our plenary perfection 89. Besides this banquet there is a Princely Inheritāce and an incorruptible Crowne of glory prepared for your Matie and this Crowne so farre excelleth all earthly Crownes as immortall exceeds mortall incorruptible corruptible in a word as farre as God excelleth man and a thing infinite surmounteth a thing finite betwixt all which there can be no proportion and is there not cause now that your Matie should beware of the poison of Heresy that killeth both body and soule And will not your zealous and religious Hart hereafter peruse ouer all forged writings and neuer cease searching vntill you haue found the euidences of the Catholicke Church wherby your Matie can only lay clayme to this Crowne of immortality 90. And this is all that we your Maiestyes humble subiects and seruants do in our dayly sighes teares and prayers to Almighty God begge at his handes to wit that our gratious God would of his mercifull goodnesse vouchsafe so to inspire your Princely hart with the principall spirit that you may once at the least come to make this reflection vpon the course that you are in now concerning Religion Then should you easily discouer the fraudes and impostures of the Protestant cause Then should you disclose the poysoned and inuenomed druggs of their erroneous opinions wherby they would insect both the body and the soule of your Princely Person suspecting no guile fearing no such treachery and that to your euerlasting destruction Lastly then should you desery how false and counterfait their euidences are concerning Religion and that they can neuer hould plea for the foresaid Princely inheritance wherunto your Noble Person is interessed 91. Your Maiesty was borne amongst the Protestāts as S. Augustine compassionately complained of diuers borne amongst the Donatists therby you could not but receaue that impression that was infused and instilled into you by your first educators and therby you haue bene made as I trust rather credens Haereticis then Haereticus as the same Father said of his friend Honoratus Your Maiesty is earnest now against the Catholicke Romā faith and professors therof and so was I my selfe too once and so was S. Augustine whilst he was a Manichean and soe was that great Apostle S. Paul perswading himselfe no doubt that he ought yea that he should do God good seruice persecuting that way of Christian profession vntill God had opened his eyes inlightened his mind to see the erroneous course wherin he then was 92. And now may it please your Matie to consider of this one reasō which though it be the last yet is it not the least viz. that so many of your Maties loyall Subiectes men of considerable birth worth and quality yea and some of them such that haue spent much pretious time and haue bene content to exhaust their Patrimonies in your Noble Vniuersities and all in the pursuite of learning and truth of Christian Religion these men I say hauing now iust reason to expect some preferment with other their equalls after their long wearisome labours endeauours would not so suddenly change their minds as they do daily in this point of Religion forgo all future hopes and fortunes abandon Countrey kith and kinne expose themselues to all temporall difficulties and losses and that without constraint of any euen voluntarily and after all this to be ready to shed their blond and sacrifice their innocent liues for their Resolution made concerning Religion all which they could neuer do were it not that a higher hand than humaine euen the hand of heauen leadeth them into the bosome of the Church were it not vpon the force and efficacy of euident truth when it pleaseth almighty God so to inlighten their vnderstanding as in the middest and thickest of the darknes of heresy to shew them the only and alone sauing Catholicke Truth and Church as also to frame their wills and inflame their affections to yield all obedience therunto notwithstanding any obstacles whatsoeuer 93. Alas my dread Soueraigne what is Rome to vs English men that we should so mind it Or the Church of Rome that we should much affect it Or the Pope of Rome that we should so highly honor him were it not that Rome euer was is and shall be the Chaire of S. Peter the present faith of Rome the former faith of S. Peter were it not that this conuerted our Iland this Church first planted the Christian faith in our Iland this Bishop from time to time repayred renewed and continued the decaying faith in our Iland In a word were it not that all that separate themselues from this head and origen of vnity in the Christian Church are as beames cut of from the sunne as boughes violently broken downe from the tree as channels streams deuided from their fountaine which must needes dry vp wither and consume to nothing This is the sole cause my Liege Lord that Rome is so neare and deare vnto vs the Bishop of Rome so honored by vs the faith of Rome so receaued of vs. This is may it please your Matie the only cause of our suddaine change and constant resolution in

the Anabaptist can euer be conuinced of his heresies by any groundes of Protestant Religion VVill the Protestant appeale him to the Scripture The Anabaptist can produce more texts and alleage more plentifull places of Scripture then he can Will he referre the interpretation of the places cyted on both sides to the spirit The Anabaptist presently presumeth and braggeth of a greater measure of the spirit then he Will the Protestant accuse his spirit as erroneous and authour of a wrong interpretation as Micheas truly charged the false Prophets of Iezabel when he could them that Sathan had offered vnto Almighry God that he would go forth and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all Achabs false prophets Then will he reply againe as Zidkiah did And when departed the spirit of the Lord from me to speake in thee VVill he conuent him before the Consistory and sribunall of the Protestant Church Bishops therof as diuers haue bene and were burned by them The Anabaptist presently complayneth and in this very iustly that it is no indifferēt kynd of tryall to be iudge in their owne cause Finally will the Protestant remit it to the vmpiring of any other present Church or be content that all Controuersies betwixt them shall fall to the decision of the Fathers The Anabaptist kicketh against that cutteth of all meanes of triall with this text of Scripture Spiritualis homo omnia dijudicat ipse à nemine iudicatur The spirituall man iudgeth all thinges and needeth not to be iudged of any Thus we see euen amongst Sectaries thēselues Controuersies grow endlesse by Scriptures though all pretend to belieue Scriptures and plentifully to cyte the same 12. Moreouer where the Puritans actiō in England swaicth most as very vsually in good towns great citties it doth there shall you find all their Preachers of this humour they haue nothing in their mouthes but the Ghospell of Christ the Ghospell of Christ the pure Word of the Lord as though their false corrupted Geneuiā Translatiō were eyther part of the Ghospell or Word of God And they seeme so farre forth to confide to their English translatiō as that they affect to alleage Scriptures only putting one vpō the necke of an other disdayning as it were to quote any Father or ancient writer for interpretation of Scriptures or confirmation of their doctrine esteeming their own expositions though neuer so vaine and impertinent to be firme groundes for building any thing thereon as out of the Scriptures 13. And here I remember that not many moneths past perusing priuately with my selfe the foresaid booke of O. O. Emanuel written by a Protestant against the Puritans he among other things discouereth vnto the German with whome he maketh his Dialogue some 15. seuerall places of Scripture so falsely and impertinently alleadged by Puritan writers that the German is inforced to conclude Thus I see already how ridiculous they are And verily he that shall read the places alleadged weigh them with any iudgement will confesse that they are ridiculously applyed indeed and yet with their followers all must be Scriptures which they speake and the pure word of God vttered by the instinct of the spirit be it neuer so fantastically or fanatically applyed 14. VVell then to come to the Conclusion when I saw and considered all this and had weighed the same with that indifferency of iudgement that I possibly could as in a matter so much impotting my soule it stood me vpon I began first to suspect this spirit of Luther that auerred so confidently his assurance of the Scriptures and true vnderstanding thereof against a thousand Cyprians a thousand Augustines hauing no other ground thereof then his owne particuler perswasion to that effect which perswasion notwithstanding was and is in many points held proued to be erroneous by such as followed his breach and namely by the Church of England in which I saw many that reiected him to be as confident in their owne perswasion and to auerre for Scriptures and the true Word of God whatsoeuer themselues did found out of the Bible in their owne sense and consequently I did inferre as a most certayne sequele that this profession of admitting beleeuing or following Scriptures ech man out of his owne sense and iudgement without any certayne rule band or limit of exposition cannot be sufficient to proue a man a Christian Catholicke and no Hereticke for that it may open the way to be an Hereticke if his choice of interpretation be erreneous And thus much of this first Consideration There followeth the second The second Consideration VVHEN Almighty God of his infinite goodnes mercy after that immeasurable space of eternity wherein the Blessed Trinity had raigned gloryously triumphed without any creatures condescended to make a world and to create man and consequētly vouchsafed therby to institute a visible society company or Church vpon earth to acknowledge serue and honour him leauing vnto them sufficient directions whereby they might accomplish their seruice to him and thereby to arriue to the hauen of happines the same most wise God gouerned the said Church for more then two thousand yeares without any writtē word that is now extant And after this large space when it pleased the Diuine Maiestie that the history of the worlds creation mans propagation c. should be committed to writing for the benefit of succeeding posterity he stirred vp that great gouernour of his people and Prophet Moyses inabled him with a great measure of his principall and propheticall spirit inspired him and then appointed him to compyle those famous bookes commonly called in Greeke Pentateuch the first fiue bookes of the Byble to wit Genesis the booke of creation Exodus the booke of their departure out of Egipt Leuiticus the booke of Priests and Sacrifices Numeri the booke of numbring the people and Deuteronomy the booke of the lawes repetition 16. In like manner the same God whose pleasure was euer to be with the sonnes of men houlding the high hand of his diuine prouidence ouer his Church inspired likwise and appointed others also after the example of Moyses holy men to compose and write other bookes afterwards vpon diuers and sundry occasions offered as in the ould Tement may be seene But yet we shall not find that any of those bookes of Moyses or any of the rest that were written by the other Authors were digested and collected in manner and method of orderly institutions as in all other arts and sciences is wont to be done but rather by peece-meale and by parts as occasion fell out the Authors therof principally intending an historicall narration rather then any exact doctrinall instruction and the reason is this for that the ordinary institution and instruction of euery man how he ought to beleeue liue feare and serue God was for all this tyme before the law written to be taken only from the Church by traditions of Fathers to their

Councell of Trent For iustifiing of which causes eight conditions are required by them to be obserued in that Councell wherof the fourth is That the decisions be made in all Controuersies onely out of Scriptures and not out of Ecclesiasticall Canons or traditions the fifth is That decisions be againe made not according to the plurality of voyces or suffrages but according vnto the norme and rule of Gods word But what this norme or rule is they expound not but do leaue it as they found it stil to be contended about VVherunto if we adioyne two other conditions of theirs which are the last to wit that the Protestant Ministers may giue voyces equally with Bishops in deciding of all questions that if they should not be able to defend their cause yet not only their persons should be secure but their cause also not to be condēned for heresy These I say if we add as the later vnto the former we shall plainely discerne that they had not so much as the least thought to stand vnto that Councell at all but to their owne heads and by these to their owne vnreasonable conditions and vnconscionable to make their controuersies and heresies endlesse and indeterminable For if euery man or at least euery Minister hath authority to determine out of Gods word whē will there be an end 33. And here you see the small or rather no hope that is of agreement betwixt Protestants and Catholickes by way of Generall Councells and that the Protestants reseruing themselues onely to Scripture for the decision of matters and not admitting generall Councells and Fathers to be vmpiring iudges of the sense meaning therof they tread first into the steppes and rake into the sacrilegious ashes of all former ancient condemned heretickes euen for this very point condemned by the Church in many of her generall Councells and secondly by such conditions they make themselues sure and secure from being condemned in such sort as that they will yeald therunto And the selfe same fundamentall reason or rather desperate refuge and euasion of theirs in prophaning and abusing this sacred Sanctuary of Scripture by their prophane spirits and vnhallowed glosses houldeth also for their neuer agreeing amongst themselues by Meetings Conferences Colloquies Disputations Synods or Councells for that the Lutherans and Sacramentaries whether Zuinglians or Caluinists for of these two only I meane to speake at this time standing vpon this resolute principle on all handes that nothing is to be determined but by Scripture and then ech one interpreting that Scripture differently from the other acknowledging no iudge on neither party how is it possible that they should euer come to any end of determination 34. And this will euidently appeare if we cast our eyes vpon those Conuenticles Meetings Conferences Synods Councels Colloquies held betwixt these reforming brethren for the space of threescore years togeather to wit frō the yeare 1530. vnto the yeare 1590. which are set forth by Stanislaus Rescius Embassadour vnto the King of Polonia at Naples vpon the yeare 1596. which do amount to aboue threescore Synods Coūcels Meetings held at Smalcaldium Frankesord Constance Tygure VVittemberge Berna Ratisbone Spire Norimberge Lipsia VVormes Luneburge Maulnbourne Petricouia Varadine Gratz Brunswicke Dresda Alba Iulia Cracouia and diuers other places all these and many more if we looke into with an indifferent eye we shall euer find that they were so farre from concluding any peace in religion or reconciling of their Controuersies by these Synodes and Councells as that they departed farre greater enemyes and more disagreeing in their opinions then when they first met witnes their departure at one meeting of theirs aboue mentioned when they would neyther giue nor take dextras fraternitatis nor dextras humanitatis fellowship of fraternity nor fellowship of humanity which is a token that they haue not the spirit of vniō nor any meanes left them to come vnto it and consequently that the example and president of these first foure generall Councells that determined with authority and vniforme iudgement the controuersies of their times ouer all the world do preiudice all togeather and condemne the Protestants of our age and do conuince that they are not of their spirit or religion and that neyther Generall Nationall Prouinciall or particuler Councells Synods or Meetings can bring themselues to any concord or agreement togeather especially diuision and dissention being a note as it is ascribed by all ancient Fathers peculiar vnto heretickes that they were alwaies irreconciliable and deuided amongst themselues And this was the effect of my second consideration The third Consideration MY third Consideration was that by reading these Councells I did not only find a complete Hierarchy and Ecclesiasticall regiment of the Catholicke Church to be obserued in those former ancient tymes consisting of Bishops Archbishops Patriarches and Prelates gouerning the said Church conforme to that of the Catholickes of our dayes and wholy different from the Protestants Churches which they call reformed though in my iudgment they may more truely be called deformed in that they haue taken away all such Hierarchy of Bishops except only a small glimpse thereof reserued in England for a shew but in many other particuler points also I plainly perceaued their senses opinions and iudgments to be far dissonant from these of our Protestants whether we regard their practice for conuersation and reformation of our manners or respect their doctrine for instruction and information of our iudgments wherof God assisting I shall lay forth some few briefe and punctuall obseruations purposely pretermitting infinite others that may be gathered out of the foresaid foure generall Councells 36. In the first of the foure I meane Nicen and the 3. Canon therof these wordes represented themselues vnto my view Omnibus modis interdixit Sancta Synodus vt neque Episcopo neque Presbytero neque Diacono neque vlli Clericorum omnino licere habere secum mulierem extraneam nisi fortèmater aut soror aut auia aut amita vel matertera sit in his namque personis harum similibus omnis quae ex mulieribus est suspitio declinatur qui aliter praeter haec agitpericlitetur de Clero suo The holy Synod doth forbid by all meanes and determineth it to be vnlawfull for any Bishop Priest Deacon or any other of the Cleargy to haue any externe woman with them except perhaps it be their mother sister grandmother or aunt by father or mothers side for in these all suspition that may arise about dwelling with women is declyned and he that shall do contrary to this shall leese his Clergy Thus that first and famous Councell decreed ratified and enacted for the Angelicall continency of the Clergy in those dayes 37. And the true meaning of this holy Councell is according to the playne purport of the wordes as they are set downe in the Canon to wit that Clergy men could not marry after they