Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	nature_n	reason_n	1,625	5	4.6916	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38780	The voice of the people for a king shewing the only way for the future settlement and peace of England, humbly presented to His Excellency the Lord General Monck / by Arise Evans.	Evans, Arise, b. 1607.; Albemarle, George Monck, Duke of, 1608-1670.	1659 (1659)	Wing E3474; ESTC R27971	16,994	34

it was not so for God had ordained Eunuches to be his Ministers and when those orders of Eunuchs called the Sons of God Gen. 6. 2. broke their order and would no more part with their privy Members but take wives and are become worldings like other Lay-men for whom it is lawful so to doe Then evil encreased so that God repents that he had made man and drown'd the whole world except Noah a righteous person that foresaw it and was saved by obeying Gods command Gen. 6. and the Prophet Isaiah understanding this invites the order of Eunuches to the House of God again to be his Ministers Isa. 56. 4 5. and Christ himself also doth invite them Matth. 19. 12. and that in Matth. 24. 37 38 39. Luke 17. 26 27 18 29. It was not because the Lay-men did marry and give in marriage eat drink plant build which things are for lay-men to doe but for Ministers it is unlawful and destructive for themselves and Nation to build plant and to exceed in eating and drinking or to be worldly given for why they ought to be true Eunuches only for God's service as the Oxe is which minds not to propagate his own seed but his Masters seed Now the Protestant Priest will say I have the Scripture for my warrant to marry saith the Romish Priest I am sure thy marrying will be thy ruin thou hadst best come to me again saith Origen the the Eunuch Priest ye are both in the way to damnation for your Gates is wide but enter in at the strait gate as I did take your unruly member away from you and then you come into me I am sure we shall not have too many Priests and we shall be peaceable we shall care only for God his Church we shall leaven the world with our meekness which we nor they could not obtain while we had stones to move us to a cholerick nature we shall be as useful for to feed mens souls as the Oxen is for their bodies And you shall find that the strivings and quarrels of their Priests have been the cause of all the civil Wars in the world for the Priests war will at length prove a national quarrel and the reason why the Priests quarrel is because there is too many of them every one of them will be a Priest for lucres sake and he that is truly called of God will not refuse it if he cannot have it without he came in as aforesaid it 's the only way to try their calling whether it be of God or not of God and God saith that he will give Priests after his own mind and those must be Eunuches Kings found Eunuches to be the most fittest for their presence and service as you may read in the Scripture and yet in Forraign Countries Kings have them and what a glorious fine godly man was that Eunuch of great Authority under Candace Queen of the Ethiopians who as he was riding in his Chariot was reading the Scripture and how sweet was his nature that as soon as Philip showeth to him Jesus Christ he presently believeth and is Baptized Act. 8. from v. 25. to the end but contrarily how stubborn against Christ the Priests were you see through out the Gospel and what mischief then and all along they did to their Nation one Levite Priest for his Wife or Whores sake for she was but his Concubine sets all Israel to fight one against the other that it was Gods mercy to them they were not all consumed that bout Judg. 20. let this suffice now for this matter Now to conclude 1. The General as I said before being a single person must give us a law and he must frame it by Scripture rule and so the people of Roome gave advice when the King of England after his conversion sent to the Pope to know by what law he should govern the Pope answered him saying you have the Old and New Testament make you a law agreable to that 2. The General must be one that knoweth all the cases in the Nation usually tryed by law for Moses was learned in all the wisdome of the Egyptians Act. 7. 22. he knew all their laws and controversies and so doth the Master of the Rolls our General know all the controversies of this Nation that is the Man to give law There must be a King to execute the said law else it will do no good for notwithstanding the Israelites had a good law they did not regard it when there was no King in Israel every one did what was right in his own Eyes Judg. 17. 6. and if you read from hence Judg. 17. to the end of that book you shall see what evil they did ye as bad as Sodom Judg. 19. 22 23 24 25 26 27 28. and what wars was among them for it Judg. 20. and the reason is because they had no King and the said reason is cited three times to shew us the reason and truth of it Judg. 17. 6 18. and 1. 19. and 1. therefore it was time for Israel to ask a King and I speak it with reverence when the people asked a King it touched Samuels self interest and he looked upon it as a great affront therefore he is displeased because the people now would cast him out to have a King in his place and speaks bitter things to the people yet you see the peoples case was good for his sons who were made Judges whom he thought should Reign carried themselves base took bribes and perverted judgement and the Lord justifies the people and bids him hear them and the Lord by arguments perswadeth Samuel to be patient and not lay it so to heart yet self interest is so sweet that the good Prophet for all that labours to perswade the people not to have a King until they were at last so resolute that they refuse to hear Samuel and said Nay but there shall be a King over us FINIS

●6 9. 10 11. All ye beasts of the field come to devour ye all the beasts in the forrest his watchmen are blind they are all ignorant they are all dumb dogs they cannot bark Sleeping lying down loving to slumber yea they are greedy dogs which can never have enough and they are shepherds that cannot understand they all look to their own way every one for his gain or tyths from his quarter Origen one of the most famous ancient Fathers of the Church for this cause would have none to be Ministers but Ennuches and he himself would and had his privy Members taken from him upon that account yet the Church then did not approve of his judgement in that point what arguments or reasons he used for it at that time I know not I am sure there is much more might now be spoken in it for beside Scripture Reason time and woful experience doth evince it so that we may confesse it to be an impregnable truth For Scripture you see our Saviour Christ in his time would have Eunuches to be his Ministers if men could receive it upon that account Mat. 19. 13. For if none were admitted or esteemed to be a Minister of the Word and Sacrament but such as enter in at such strait gate Luk. 13. 24. I beleive we should not have had such Heaps or Swarms of Teachers or Preachers as we had of late 2 Tim. 4. 3. but should have had a pure sort of Preacher that had rather die then turn as Ministers have done in these times for we believe in reason that he which hath laid away his privy Members from him for the truth sake is most likest if need require to lay down his life for the truth sake for that qualification worketh a glorious change in nature so that I may say if it were possible to Gold Lucifer the grand Divel it would bring to the true obedience of God to have a saving faith and to become a holy Angel again As for Example Behold the difference between the Ox and the Bull the Ox is meek gentle and quiet the Bull hot furious and quarrelsome sometime for no cause but his humour he roareth and teareth the ground with his feet and hornes and if there be stacks of Wheat or Cocks of Hay or any such thing nigh him he will spend his fury in scattering them about and think it is his glory that nothing can stand before him so is the stone Horse Bore Ram Cock or any stoned creature proud furious and of a quarrelsome nature but being Gelded they become of a clean contrary nature so that I say as I said before Gelding is so virtual that it would change the Devil in nature and make him a holy Angel as good as he was when he was created Here you see a man may argue much for Eunuches Ministers from the different nature of beasts and bring many reasons bac'kt with Scripture to maintain it for David in the person of Christ saith Psal. 22. Many Bulls have compassed me he doth not tearm them Priests Mat. 27. 1 2. Oxen For the Ox knoweth his owner Esa. 1. 3. And those Priests had they been Eunuches should have known Christ therefore their stony proud hearts was their ruine and destruction and now I will shew you what time hath manifested in this point First it is clear that the Apostles in their time allowed Priests to marry yet with some restriction for whereas then Laymen might have two or three Wives the Priest must have but one and after as the Church grew was stablished in power the Priests striving one with another for means and preferment sets all in a bloody War then the parish Priest turn as ours do now turn this way or that way any way to keep their means because of their Wives and Children after the Wars is ended the Church seeing the cause of their misery to be the married Priest and that such would soon let the Church sink rather then suffer the least to save it made a decree that no married men should be Priests and the Church had rest a thousand years Then Hus Luther Calvin with many more covetous stone Priests doth quarrel and will have Wives contrary to their Vows divide Christendom putting it into a bloody War making a great rent in the Church which had they been Eunuches they would not have done it we English take part with them and excluding the old Romish Church set up a Church of our own moulding with married Priests and no sooner was it ●et up but some of our Priests having not preserment and means enough to satisfie their greedy minds under pretence of shewing a more holy way quarrels with the Church so that all those Priests whose greedy bellies are not satisfied get together consults and being called Puritans resolve to preach against the decent Ceremonies of the Church taking any sleight occasion to quarrel and holding forth any whimsie that would work upon the people and stirring them up for their own advantage and this they did in a more cunning way then can be declared until they brought it to a bloody cruel war and overthrew the Church by force of tumults that knew not what they did in assisting a few Members to overthrow the legality of the whole Parliament in 1641. The said Priests then preaching that Oaths was not obligary damn themselves and the whole Nation in perjury murders and theft beyond all Heathenish Infidels that they now stink in the sight of all Nations thus they preaching rebellion get upmost yet being not the Ministers of Christ none would obey them neither could they settle any thing but were forced to come down again to say any thing to keep in and turn like weather-cocks or base slaves to the several humors of their several Governours and Masters so that if the Divel would come they would deny God and preach him for a piece of bread or the tyth and their wives and children is the main cause of this evil for if the Priests were single they would not be so greedy and covetous and they would stand to the death for the Church as we see the Priests of ROME doe but the Romish entrance to the Ministry is too broad a way which was and is the cause that their Church is subject to miscarry as I shewed before But some men will say Why then did Paul Tim. 3. 2. give toleration for Priests to marry I answer because of the hardness of mens hearts did he then suffer Priests to marry for if he had said none shall be Priests but Eunuchs or that he had said Priests shall not be married to women but live a single life the Church then being in its Infancy should have fallen for want of Ministers for who then would have been a Minister upon that account Alas you see how the Disciples fall away from Christ for a less occasion John 6. 66. But from the beginning of the Creation