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	ecclesiastical_a	person_n	2,205	5	5.3328	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17020	A treatise of the perpetuall visibilitie, and succession of the true church in all ages	Abbot, George, 1562-1633.	1624 (1624)	STC 39.3; ESTC S100501	43,587	128

God's good seruants to bee of the number of the Elect and propter sanioren et meliorem partem for their sounder and better part to bee of that Church whereof we are to be members of that body whereof by the grace of Christ we are a portion And in this respect our settled and resolued iudgement is that when it is asked Where our Church in former Ages was we may besides that which we haue formerly answered truly say that it was in England in France in Spaine in Italy yea in Rome it selfe Spiritus vbi vult spirat the holy Ghost breatheth where it pleaseth for who cannot conceiue by the writings of many in former Ages or by such touches as others doe giue concerning them that diuers who liued neerest the Whore of Babylon did most detest her abomination and finding that the weaknes and impurity of her doctrine could not truely satisfie the hungry and thirsty soule did according to that knowledge which Christ out of his Word reuealed vnto them seek some means which was not ordinarily professed in that Time And if it be asked Who they were and how they could lie hid from the world It may truly be answered that their case was like the case of them in the daies of Elias who were not knowne to that State which would haue persecuted them Now why should not wee think but as God had his secret and inuisible company at that time in that most idolatrous Countrey so in the time of the deepest darknesse hee had those which saw light his Christian Children among Antichrists Brood such as embraced true Religion among the superstitious So that Italy and Rome and these Westerne parts had some of Gods Saints in all Ages who like Sea-fish most fresh in the salt water and beeing remoued in their affections though not in their persons did with Lot vex their righteous soules in the middest of a spiritual Sodom and kept themselues vnspotted of the world And yet it is not to bee taken that wee coarctate the Church within those Prouinces onely which looked towards the See of Rome but know that God had thousands of his Elect elsewhere Christians haue bin in India euen by perpetuall descent from the daies of the Apostles and so in Africa among the Abissines in infinite and huge companies besides such as haue continued in Armenia Asia the lesser Aegypt but especially in the Greeke Church which was neuer so much as in shew extinguished and from whom the Russians and Muscouites had their Faith Our Popish Lads would gladly shut all these out of Christs Fold because they acknowledge not the Bishop of Rome for their Vniuersall Pastor but wee should doe wrong to Almighty God to pinne his iudgement vpon the Popes sleeue and to offer to pull from him so many ample Churches whereas charity and common sense might put vs in minde that he might there haue thousands throughout all Ages Looke to these places ye Papists and imagine that if there had beene none but these yet the words of the Scripture which in generality speake of a Spouse had beene true and Christ had there had his body on earth and the Church had not beene vtterly extinguished if neither we nor the Synagogue of Rome had beene extant But in as much as it cannot be denied but that the prophesies concerning Antichrist doe most touch the Westerne world Rome beeing by the holy Ghost euidently designed to bee the seat of the Whore of Babylon as also because our Romish Standard-bearers are more willing to talke of those parts then of any other I will once returne againe to the Countreys neere adioyning Then in some parts of Christendome how many men were there in all ages who loathed both the See of Rome and the whole courses of it as the Israelites did loath the Aegyptians bondage Mathew Paris alone giueth as many notable experiments that way as relating the Acts of the Emperour Frederick who put out diuers declarations in detestation of the Pope and adding elsewhere further of his owne that Pope Gregory did absolue from the oath of fealty all who were bound vnto the Emperor perswading them that they should be faithfull in vnfaithfulnesse obedient in disobedience But so much deserued the Romane Churches lewdnesse which is to be execrated of all men that the Popes authority did merit to bee harkened vnto by few or none He reporteth also of a certain Carthusian Monk at Cambridge who cryed out against the Pope and said that Hee was an Heretick and that the Churches were profaned and of Robert Grosthead Bishop of Lincolne who was a man both holy and learned in his time This Lincolniensis while he liued had many combates with the Bishop of Rome and openly resisted his barbarous tyranny in domineering so farre in England as to enioyne prouision of the best Benefices to be taken vp for Italian Boyes which for a Prebend in his Church of Lincolne hee would not yeeld vnto and for that cause was by the Pope excommunicated But when hee was dying hee most bitterly inueighed against the Romane Bishop and the Ecclesiasticall persons as the most wicked men that did liue In the same Author you may also finde the conceit which the most reuerend Arch-bishop of York Sewaldus had of them and their proceedings What should I mention Ioachim who said that in his time Antichrist was already born and was in the City of Rome or that Bishop of Florence who liued about the yeer 1100 and did vse to say that Antichrist was then in the world Which moued Pope Paschalis so much as that hee thought fit to enquire of him in a Councell and did there castigate him for it Notable in this kinde are the Contentions of Philippus Pulcher the King of France and his whole Clergy against Boniface the Eightth I might adde to these Petrus de Brus and many other learned men who laid the Axe to the very Root of Popery and some in set Treatises oppugned one of their documents and some assaulted other but that the Writer of the Catalogus testium veritatis as it is lately enlarged and Master Fox and Master Bale and diuers other haue largely handled this to the reading of whose Bookes I doe referre them who in particular desire to bee more aduertised in this behalfe Now if these things doe appeare much by their own witnesse and by the confession of Papists themselues as also by such few Records as by Gods prouidence so disposing doe yet remaine how many illustrious arguments might there haue beene of the Confession of our faith if the Clergy and Magistracy of those darke times had not burned and suppressed all things which made against them as I shewed before touching the Bookes of Iohn Wickles Reinald Pecock in Oxford The Clergy in those dayes did almost rule all and they had the custody of all Libraries to ransack at

Fellowes to inuent and deuise touching vs whereas we vtterly disclaim these and the like positions as execrable and vngodly yea that Mounti-bank which once before I mentioned hath not blushed to asseuere that we so teach as that by our doctrine the Protestants are bound in conscience neuer to ask God forgiuenesse of their sinnes and that They are bound in conscience to auoid all good works as also that We make God the only cause of sinnes and hold that God is worse than the diuell So shamelesse was this fellow growne that hee neither knoweth nor careth what hee saith and yet many a poor Papist abused and gulled by the diuels deceiuing instruments doth swallow such Gudgeons and runneth away with these things beeing as verily perswaded of them as that the gospel is true Such a hand the seminary Priests haue ouer their disciples that they may not read our Books to see whether these obiections be true or no neither may they hear ought to the contrary Now if they thus vse vs who can speak for our selues will any man maruell that those who professed the Verity two or three hundred yeers since doo taste of the malignant aspersions of those Times The Romanists notwithstanding all this which hath been said doo not yet so leaue vs but once more further adde that none of all those which hitherto haue been named or can be named but in some knowne consessed and vndoubted opinions did vary from you and therefore they and you may not bee said to bee all of one Church Our Masters of Rhemes doo think that this lieth hardly vpon vs and therefore thus vauntingly they vrge that They will not put the Protestants to prooue that there were 7000 of their Sect when their new Elias Luther began but let them proue that there were seuen or any one either then or in all ages before him that was in all points of his belief What the old Fathers taught we may haue time heerafter to shew but for other of later time it is most easie to manifest that all those whom before I haue named did generally for all main matters teach the same that we now doo teach There is no Papist who can truely and without calumniating them or faining things vpon them demonstrate that in causes which touch the substance of faith or the foundation of Christian Religion they did dissent from vs. Hee that will try this let him look on the Declaration of Walther Bruite which I before mentioned and let him read it set down by himself and not reported by other And what did that learned Lay-man deliuer there which was not the belief of Wicklef and the rest of the English professing the Gospell in those Times But if there bee in some petty matters yea questions of some reasonable moment difference of opinion between them and vs shal wee not therefore bee of the same Church with them or they with vs Yes verily for otherwise many of the antient Fathers should not bee of the Communion of Saints or Catholick Congregation with those who came after them and amended their errors for was not Lactantius spotted with the Millenary infection and Cyprian with the matter of re-baptizing Had not Austen an opinion of the necessity of the Eucharist to bee administred to children and that infants being dead without Baptism were not onely depriued of the fruition of heauenly ioies but were damned to the pit of hell and to euerlasting torments And what man religiously affected will suspect but that although S. Cyprian and the other African Bishops assembled in a Councell did concerning the new baptizing of those who were already baptized by Hereticks determine clean contrary to Cornelius and the rest of the Italian Bishops yet they should not bee of the same faith in generall and of the same holy Church whereof Cornelius was Saint Austen can thus write concerning Cyprian Whereas that holy man Cyprian thinking otherwise of Baptisme then the matter was which was afterward handled with most diligent consideration established did remain in the Catholique Vnity both by the plentifulnesse of his charity a recompence was made and by the sickle of his suffering there was a purging In another place hee saith The authority of Cyprian doth not terrifie me but the humility of Cyprian doth refresh mee He meaneth that if that worthy man had liued to haue seene more light in that argument or to behold what the succeeding time had reuealed and concluded in that behalfe hee would in great humility and meeknes of heart haue conformed himself and yeelded vnto it which may iustly seeme for a true defense of the Waldenses Io. Wicklef Iohn Hus or any other seruant of God who might seeme in matters of small moment to vary from vs. And thus I trust that by this time it appeareth to euery one who will not wilfully cloze his eies and stop his eares against an apparant truth that God hath at all times had his Children holding the verity of Christian Religion and not approouing of the filthy Superstitions and sacrilegious Idolatries of the abominable Antichrist of Rome So that it is a most fond collection that either the Popish Conuocation or Confusion are the right and vndoubted Spouse of Iesus Christ or else that for one thousand yeeres together there was no Church in the world They doat much vpon themselues and on the opinion of their beauty who in such intolerable deformities doe predicate and magnifie their Synagogue as the vnspotted wife mysticall body of our most blessed Sauiour Truth it is that intending to blinde the ignorant and to abuse the simple they labored by all externall pomp and shew to giue to their hypocrisie outward formality a settled opinion of pietie sanctitie and for that cause there was no corner of the braine of man or rather of men in many Ages succeeding together vnsought to procure glory to that which in it selfe was very vnglorious Their care therefore was to conuert the eies of all persons on their externall hue which was maruellously adorned and garnished to the sense with their Crosses set vp or carried before some Prelates with the triple Crowne of their Popes in the red Hats of their Cardinals the precious attire of some in their Churches their prodigious apparel abroad the diuers color'd Couls of their Monks such singing chanting with Organes such ringing of Bells such trimming of Images and many more such sensible matters as that neither the Iewes nor the Gentiles had the like And among al this if true Religion in diuers were present it is not to be maruelled at if shee were scant seene or if no notice were taken of her for her poore and vntrimmed or vngarnished hue for her naked simplicity and vnpainted integrity It was the commendation giuen to Salomons Beloued by whom the Church is represented that the Kings daughter is all glorious within her beauty consisting