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	soul_n	spirit_n	3,520	5	5.4686	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A14227	An ansvver to a challenge made by a Iesuite in Ireland Wherein the iudgement of antiquity in the points questioned is truely delivered, and the noveltie of the now romish doctrine plainly discovered. By Iames Vssher Bishop of Meath.	Ussher, James, 1581-1656.; Malone, William, 1586-1656.	1624 (1624)	STC 24542; ESTC S118933	526,688	560

and vve must pray to the Word of God his onely begotten and the first bornè of all creatures and we must intreat him that he as high Priest would present our prayer when it is come to him unto his God and our God unto his Father and the father of them that frame their life according to the word of God And whereas Celsus had further sayd that we must offer first fruits unto Angels and prayers as long as we live that we may finde them propitious unto us answere is returned by Origen in the name of the Christians that they held it rather fit to offer first fruits unto him which sayd Let the earth bring forth grasse the herbe yeelding seed and the fruite tree yeelding fruite after his kinde And to whom wee give the first fruites saith he to him also doe wee send our prayers having a great high Priest that is entred into the Heavens Iesus the Sonne of God and we hold fast this confession whiles we live having God favourable unto us and his onely begotten Sonne Iesus being manifested amongst us But if we have a desire unto a multitude whom we would willingly have to be favourable unto us we learne that thousand thousands stand by him and millions of millions minister unto him who beholding them that imitate their pietie towards God as if they were their kinsfolkes and friends helpe forward their salvation who call upon God and pray sincerely appearing also and thinking that they ought to doe service to them and as it were upon one watchword to set forth for the ●enefit and salvation of them that pray to God unto whom they themselves also pray For they are all ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heires of salvation Thus farre Origen in his eight booke against Celsus to which for a conclusion we wil adde that place of the fift booke All prayers and supplications and intercessions and thankesgivings are to be sent up unto God the Lord of all by the high Priest who is above all Angels being the living Word and God For to call upon Angels we not comprehending the knowledge of them which is above the reach of man is not agreeable to reason And if by supposition it were granted that the knowledge of them which is wonderfull and secret might be comprehended this very knowledge declaring their nature unto us and the charge over which every one of them is set would not permit us to presume to pray unto any other but unto God the Lord over all who is aboundantly sufficient for all by our Saviour the Sonne of God Tertullian and Cyprian in the bookes which they purposely wrote concerning Prayer deliver no other doctrine but teach us to regulate all our prayers according unto that perfect patterne prescribed by our great Master wherein we are required to direct our petitions unto Our Father which is in heaven Matth. 6.9 Luk. 11.2 These things saith Tertullian in his Apologie for the Christians of his time I may not pray for from any other but from him of whom I know I shall obtayne them because both it is he who is alone able to give and I am he unto whom it appertayneth to obtayne that which is requested being 〈◊〉 servant who observe him alone who for his religion am killed who offer unto him a rich and great sacrifice which he himselfe hath commanded Prayer proceeding from a chaste body from an innocent soule from a holy spirit where he accounteth Prayer to be the chiefe sacrifice wherewith God is worshipped agreeably to that which Clemens Alexandrinus wrote at the same time We doe not without cause honour God by prayer and with righteousnesse send up this best and holyest sacrifice The direction given by Ignatius unto Virgins in this case is short and sweete Yee Virgins have Christ alone before your eyes and his Father in your prayers being inlightened by the Spirit for explication whereof that may be taken which we reade in the exposition of the Faith attributed unto S. Gregory of Neocaesarea Whosoever rightly prayeth unto God prayeth by the Sonne and whosoever commeth as he ought to doe commeth by Christ and to the Sonne he can not come without the holy Ghost Neyther is it to be passed over that one of the speciall arguments whereby the writers of this time do prove our Saviour Christ to bee truely God is taken from our praying unto him and his accepting of our petitions If Christ be onely man saith Novatianus how is he present being called upon every where seeing this is not the nature of man but of God that he can be present at every place If Christ be onely man why is a man called upon in our prayers as a mediatour seeing the invocation of a man is judged of no force to yeeld salvation If Christ be onely man why is there hope reposed in him seeing hope in man 〈◊〉 sayd to be cursed So is it noted by Origen that S. Paul in the beginning of the former epistle to the Corinthians where he saith With all that in every place call upon the Name of Iesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours 1. Corinth 1.2 doth thereby pronounce Iesus Christ whose Name is called upon to be God And if to call upon the Name of the Lord saith he and to adore God bee one and the selfe same thing as Christ is called upon so is he to be adored and as we do offer to God the Father first of all prayers 1. Tim. 2.1 so must we also to the Lord Iesus Christ and ●s wee doe offer supplications to the Father so doe we offer supplications also to the Sonne and as wee doe offer thankesgivings to God so doe we offer thankesgivings to our Saviour In like maner Athanasius disputing against the Arrians by that prayer which the Apostle maketh 1. Thessal 3.11 God himselfe and our Father and our Lord Iesus Christ direct our way unto you doth prove the unitie of the Father and the Sonne For no man saith he would pray to receive any thing from the Father and the Angels or from any of the other creatures neyther would any man say God and the Angell give thee this And whereas it might be objected that Iacob in the blessing that he gave unto Ephraim and Manasseh Genes 48.15 16. did use this forme of prayer The God which fed me from my youth unto this day The Angel which delivered me from all evills blesse those children which Cardinall Bellarmine placeth in the forefront of the forces he bringeth forth to establish the Invocation of Saints Athanasius answereth that he did not couple one of the created and naturall Angels with God that did create them nor omitting God that fed him did desire a blessing for his nephews from an Angel but saying Which delivered me from all evills hee did shew that it was not any of the created Angels but

unto them in such maner as the Romanists use now to do because the Saints not enjoying the sight of God are not able ordinarily to take notice of the prayers that are put up unto them But manie and verie famous Doctors too among the ancient did hold that the Saints are not yet admitted to the sight of God Therefore manie and verie famous Doctors among the ancient could not well hold that men should pray unto the Saints in such maner as the Romanists use now to doe The first proposition is given unto us by Bellarmine and his fellow Iesuites the second by Stapleton and other Doctors of the Romish Church yet all of them with equall boldnesse agree in denying the Conclusion It is the certaine and manifest definition of the Councells saith a Iesuite confirmed by perpetuall use from the times of the Apostles and by the authoritie of ALL the Greeke and Latin Fathers that Saints are to be prayed unto and invocated ALL the Fathers Greek and Latin teach this saith Bellarmine ALL the Fathers aswell Greeke as Latin perpetually have called upon the Saints saith Salmeron and this is cleere by ALL the writers of the first sixe hundred yeares quoth Stapleton for these kinde of men have so enured their tongues to talke of all fathers and all writers that they can hardly use any other forme of speech having told such tales as these so often over that at last they perswade themselves that they be very true indeed The memorie of the Martyrs indeed was from the very beginning had in great reverence and at their Memorialls and Martyria that is to say at the places wherein their bodies were layd which were the Churches whereunto the Christians did in those times usually resort prayers were ordinarily offered up unto that God for whose cause they layd down their lives Where the Lord being pleased to give a gracious answere to such prayers and to doe many wonderfull things for the honouring of that Christian profession which those worthy champions maintayned unto the death men began afterwards to conceive that it was at their suite and mediation that these things were granted and effected Which was the rather beleeved by reason that the Martyrs themselves were thought to have appeared unto diverse that were thus releeved both at the places of their memorialls and other where Notwithstanding in what sort these things were brought about S. Augustin professeth that it did passe the strength of his understanding to define whether the Martyrs themselves were in their owne persons present at one time in such diverse places so farre distant one from another or whether they remaining in a certaine place removed from all commerce with the affayres of men here but praying in generall for the necessities of suppliants God by the ministery of Angels did effect these things when where in what maner he pleased but especially at the Memorialls of the martyrs because he knew that to be expedient to us for the building of the faith of Christ for vvhose confession they did suffer This matter is higher faith he than that it may be touched by me and more abstruse than that it can be searched into by me and therefore whether of these two it be or whether peradventure both of them be that these things may sometimes be done by the very presence of the Martyrs sometimes by Angels taking upon them the person of the Martyrs I dare not define The first of these opinions pleaseth S. Hierome best who alledgeth for proofe thereof that place in the Revelation These follow the Lambe whethersoever he goeth whereupon he inferreth a conclusion which hath neede of a very favourable interpretation If the Lambe be every where therefore they also that are with the Lambe must be beleeved to be every where From whom Maximus Taurinensis seemeth not much to differ where he sayth Although all the Saints be every where and profit all men yet they specially doe labour for us who have also suffered punishments for us So one Eustratius a priest of Constantinople made a collection of divers testimonies both out of the Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers to prove that the soules which oftentimes and in different maners appeare unto many doe themselves appeare according to their proper existence and it is not the divine power assuming the shape of the holy soules that sheweth forth these operations And so strongly did this opinion prevayle when superstition had once gotten head that at length this Canon was discharged against those that should hold otherwise If any man say that the Saints themselves doe not appeare but their Angels onely let him be anathema The author of the Questions to Antiochus commonly attributed unto Athanasius thus determineth the matter on the contrary side Those adumbrations and visions which appeare at the chappels and tombes of the Saints are not made by the soules of the Saints but by holy Angels transformed into the shape of the Saints For how otherwise tell me can the soule of S. Peter or S. Paul being but one appeare at the same instant being commemorated in a thousand Churches of his throughout the whole world For this can neyther one Angell doe at any time it being proper unto God alone to be found at the same instant in two places and in the whole vvorld And Anastasius Sinaita or Nicanus in the selfe same maner It is fit we should know that all the visions which appeare at the chappels or tombes of the Saints are performed by holy Angels by the permission of God For how else should it be possible that the resurrection of the bodies being not yet made but the bodies and the flesh of the Saints being as yet dispersed that these should be seene in shape compleat men and oftentimes appeare upon horses armed And if thou thinkest that thou mayest contradict these things tell me how can Paul or Peter or any other Apostle or Martyr being but one appeare oftentimes at the same houre in many places For neyther is an Angel able to be at the same instant in diverse places but God onely who is uncircumscriptible Whereunto we may further adde those judicious observations of S. Augustine touching this matter If one in his sleepe may see me telling unto him something that is done or foretelling also something that is to come when I am altogether ignorant thereof and have no care at all not onely of what he dreameth but whether he awaketh I being a sleepe or he sleepeth I being awake or whether both of us at one and the some time doe eyther wake or sleepe when he seeth the dreame in which he seeth me what marvell is it if the dead not knowing nor perceiving these things are yet seene in dreames by the living and say somewhat which they being awake may know to be true But such is mans weak●esse that when any one seeth a