Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bring_v	great_a	time_n	3,079	5	3.2519	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A73737	The vvonders of the ayre, the trembling of the earth and the warnings of the world before the Iudgement day. Written by Thomas Churchyard esquire, seruant to the Queens Maiestie.	Churchyard, Thomas, 1520?-1604.	1602 (1602)	STC 5260.5; ESTC S124798	16,729	25

great reuerence and another at Cassandri a towne of Macedone or Thrace this stone for feare of the wrath of God that in his anger might punish and sodainly stricke was solemlie carryed abroad and shewed to the people to daunt their pride and bridle their follies The raynbow which as many affirm is neuer seene by night but alwayes appeareth in cleere day manifestly declareth that mightily Gods maiestie worketh and his mercifull dealings are to be marueilously noted For neuer as is to be read by good authors was séene more then two raynebowes at one time together in the skies who shewes that a firme and constant course and signe ef Gods mercyes with no alteration is planted perdurable where his people may behold it sometimes is to be seene as Plinie maketh mention of a scarlet colour and a red sanguine in the skyes and sundry other times is perceiued likewise that the skie seemes to open and fire falleth downe from the same a thing prodigious and fearefull which consumeth all thinges that it toucheth or encounters as it came to passe saieth Plinie the third yéere of the 107. Olympiade at which season King Philip of Macedonie obtayned by victorie the most parte of all Gréece And truely saith Plinie I thinke that nature which he calleth God produceth those thinges at certayne times determined by Gods appoyntment as he worketh his other operations and further sayeth Plinie all the subtill imaginations of man nor the inuentions of all humane spirits and iudgements can render no good reason for the same for there opinions thereof serueth for nothing Plinie 27. For these accidence celestiall haue alwayes signified some great calamitie to come not that I thinke sayth he that those euils and calamities that happen are the cause of the blazing starres or commetts but I holde opinion sayth he that the same commetts are procreated and sent for speciall markes and signes to know thereby what calamitie is likely to happen und because those signes are marueilous rare and strange the reason of their nature is in a maner incomprehensible so that truely men may not speake on them as they do on the order of the Planets or on their ecclipse or on many other thinges remarquable in the elements looke good Reader how excellently that eathnicke Plinie hath spoken of the diuine maiestie and doings of God which he calleth nature and note how he hath so cunningly handled the argument that no one point or other may be reasoned against for this in it selfe confuteth all thinges to the contrarie and explaneth such secrets that euery other naturall reason is by this put to silence I haue seene saieth Plinie often in the night an corps degard that made the sentinell in the campe néere the trenches certayne lights of the maner of a starre which were as it were a slame tyed to the end of a souldiers picke and on the Sea sundry Marriners as they haue sayled haue seene the like lights hanging on the mast which lightes are a very euill signe to the Saylers if they be but one of them séene at one time for that presageth shipwracke or manifesteth great mischiefe for sometimes if the flame fall downe wardes it burneth the vessell if two lights be seene they bring goodnesse and hope of happy fortune and presageth that the ship shall haue a good voyage likewise when these two happie lights ariueth the vnfortunate flame that commeth alwayes alone that the Marriners calleth helene vanisheth out of veiw yea sometimes this light lighteth full vpon many mens heads about the euening all which thinges saith Plinie neuer happen without great matter to follow them the misteries and knowledge thereof is reserued onely to the maiestie of God whom he nameth nature who will hyde and locke vp the reasons of those causes in the cabine or sacred chamber of his priuie secrets Heere Plinie plainely expoundeth though he were a Pagan many secrete matters much to the purpose of mens good opinions and greatly to the glory of God and to proue that strange lightes haue and are to be séene I being in Garnsey hauing charge vnder Syr Thomas Leighton was searching of the watch in a place called castle Cornet and there full on the toppe of a crosse I espyed this flaming fire before the face and veiw of diuers Souldiers after the which sight fell a very great tempest and such a kinde of a storme as the small fishes in the Seas could not abide for they were driuen to the shore so fast that little children and yong maydes wading but a foote deepe in the water tooke millions of the fishes and brought them to the land some in their kirchers and aprons and other some in their capps hatts and such thinges as they had for the cause Thus farre haue you heard some piece of the matter touching the ayre and secrets from thence sent to the world as God by his goodnesse pleaseth to deale And nowe shall yee haue rehearsed somewhat of the Earthquakes and other worldly Wonders that many times haue happened and hath bredde great harmes and no little wonder Now first and formost to some wonders of the world in Titus Liuius you shall read that before great warres burst out betweene the Romans and Macedonians in many places and regions were some strange thinges most fearefull and lamentable to behold For in the countrey of Lucanie the heauens seemed as they had béene all on a flaming fire and in another countrey farre from that at high noone the Sun became all ouer redde as scarlet and at midnight in the Temple of Iuno was heard a great alarum and horrible cry in diuers maners and fearefull sortes yea and in many places sundrie beastes of diuers shapes very monstrous were brought into the world and at Salonne a child was borne that the people knewe not whether it were a man or a woman and likewise in Sauoye a pigge was farryed that had the head of a man and againe in Lucanie was a horse seene that had fiue féete and as Cauies was a man that had his eares standing in the middle of his browes whereon was commaunded when the bookes of Sibell had beene seene that chast women should in murning sort sing a certayne heauie song thrée times in a weeke through the citie of Rome all which ceremonies the consull Aurellius did curiously accomplish King Philip of Macedone anon after these strange sights did beseige the great citie of Abydoo in which citie the maiestrates and people because they would not happen in Philips hand and be made slaues they all issued out and fought many times desperatly and in the ende burnt all their treasure set a fire of the Towne slue all their wiues and children and after all these horrible actes one of them killed another heere is to be noted with the rest of miseries that fell out that many euils falls immediatly in those partes where those strange and prodigious sights and signes are to be seene The Romans after this discomfited

great countrey where now is the Sea Atlantique and in the Sea Mediterranie a marueilous deale of land is sunke and couered with water yea to the very gulfe of Ambracia which is in Acarnanie which commeth out of Corinth the same hauing one member or legge vpon Gréece and how many countries in Europe Azia and other partes are destroyed by the Sea and originall cause of earthquakes I hope now néedeth not to make particular report off albeit some notorious thinges may be by the sufferance of learned men that readeth touched and somewhat treated off vnder fauour as farre as serueth to my purpose There was an earthquake in the Emperour Tiberius time so wonderfull that it ouerthrewe twelue townes in Asia all in one night and during the warres of Carthage it was reported to the Senate of Rome that within one yéere was seauen and thirtie earthquakes but now behold what followed the very selfe same season Hanniball discomfited the Romans néere the lake of Perouse and yet neither of both the armies which was a most maruell hard nor felt no péece of the earthquakes albeit the earth trembled so often as it was to bee supposed that the whole world would haue sodainly béene ouerwhelmed Thus you see the earth which is the mother of mankind though she séemes sencelesse is mooued by the almightie to tremble and shake when man is toward destruction and commonly no bloudy battayls haue happened but an earthquake or commet went before the one to make man looke vpward to the heauens where he desires to dwell and the other to warne him and plainely shew him he must fall to the earth and ashes from whence all flesh did rise and tooke his originall and surely it is a manifest signe of Gods fauour when that both heauen and earth and all other thinges wee can beholde are occupyed and working away by some misterie to call vs to repentance and make the pilgrime prepare himselfe to be gon from the vaile of miserie and miserable dungeon of disquietnes but now I pray you regard what Plinie sayeth he being but an infidell in respect of a Christian nowe truely sayth he The trembling of the earth neuer is the cause of one euil alone nor all the danger is not onely in the trembling for it alwayes presageth some mishappe and Des aster to come and likewise saith he there was neuer séene earthquake in the citie of Rome but some great mischance fell out suddenly after if an infidell beleeued so and hath set downe his opinion in print for an infallible rule and ground to builde vpon me thinke Christians should confesse without any difficultie that the naturall cause of earthquakes is a supernaturall matter which neither agitations nor exalations can command by their force to mooue so great a masse of earth as an earthquake shaketh though Aristotle and sundry others makes a great argument on the like purpose If all earthquakes commetts in the ayre signes and wonders in the skyes and many other notorious maruells rise on a naturall cause it may be asked who sent the starre to be séene at Christs birth and who caused the whole world to shake at his death if nature by the course of her operation worketh such wonders then belike that fearefull earthquake had happened though Christ had not dyed and at the same houre and instant though Christ had not suffered for man the earthquake would not haue fayled the ordinarie season and working that springs on exalations agitations and such like matter Aristotle for all his superexcellent learning knew no more then pertayned to the iudgement of a man and though all the déepe wise men of the world and the world it selfe were possest with his bookes and arguments it passeth all reason to beleeue that the earth can shake and the whole world trembling without his will and pleasure that made the day and night and knoweth all thinges before they come to passe and is both the mouer and maker of heauen and earth And surely I beléeue that neither all the Diuels in hell nor all the Angels in heauen nor all the coniurers and sorcerers in the world haue no power of themselues to turne vp side downe a little mountaine much lesse haue they power to turne mightie kingdomes into the Seas and make the maine Sea dry land no doubt but the winds waters ayre fire and earth working together haue an excellent force and nature to woorke their effects and bring to passe thinges both marueilous and past mans cunning to compasse but to shewe armies and battayls in the skies commetts in the cloudes force the heauens to rayne bloud compell the heauie molde to remooue and shake the vniuersall world is a diuiner matter to speake off and deserueth in a most high manner to bee handled and more reuerenced regarded and feared when it happeneth For such strange sights are the very messengers that the great iudge sendeth before his comming and the only warnings the world in the latter dayes shall haue before this olde earth shall be consumed and new Ierusalem shall be made nature can not of her selfe make sweete apels sowre sowre apels sweete change and exchange the naturall kind of trées or other fruite as in Lyche was seene a towne of Surrie at the ariuing of king Xerxes in those partes read Aristander and the commentaries of Caius Epidius and they will shew you thinges to be wondred at of trées if it be true that they affirme they say trees did speake which nature denies and reason can not conceiue but trées stones and all other sencelesse thinges God may make speake aswell as he made Balams Asse reprooue his owne maister and the Oxe in Rame cry Roma caue tibi Plinie in his naturals sayth that it was reported of the Romains that in the territorie of Cuma a cittie of Ionie a great and a high tree did sincke so lowe into the earth that nothing but a fewe small sprayes on the very toppe thereof was to be seene but what thinke you followed after marry many mischiefes terrible bloudshedde wicked conspiracies and open dissentions for the ciuill war betweene Pompeie and Iulius Caesar began at that present and ended not God knowes a long while after the Romaines to knowe what the sincking of that tree did signifie did looke in their bookes of deuinations and their they found that this wonder presaged a matter of greate consequence threatned the slaughter of multitudes of men What néedes nowe to search or rehearse prophane histories for the weight and worthinesse of a true argument touching earthquakes wonders in the ayre and warnings of the world that manifestly setteth foorth the myraculous doings and maiestie of the almighty for you néede not to goe any further for a ready resolution of these poyntes but to the holy scripture which plainely declares that in the latter dayes you should see signes in the ayre wonders in the world the starres fall from heauen the Sunne and Moone loose their light and to be