Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A13261
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A Christian loue-letter sent particularly to K.T. a gentlewoman mis-styled a Catholicke, but generallie intended to all of the Romish religion, to labour their conuersion to the true faith of Christ Iesus. By Iohn Swynnerton, Gent
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Swynnerton, John.
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1606
(1606)
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STC 23558; ESTC S120777
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49,016
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88
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if we truelie obserue pointeth out our land of promise and directeth vs the right waie thither Nay this is the waie it selfe that leades vs vnto truth and the truth it selfe that leades vnto life and the life it selfe that vve so long after euen eternall selicitie I am the way Iohn 14 6. the truth and the life Novv from this knowledge of my sauior I learn to renounce my selfe and relie vpon him to cast off mine own beggerlie rags patched together with abhomination and by the hand of faith to put on his princely robe the glorious robe of his righteousnes In this attire I appeare before my god become acceptable in his presence for this garment he frely giueth me and as freely teacheth me how to weare it I meane this righteousnesse of Christ which is the true consormitie with the law of GOD and an absolute fulfilling thereof God out of his meere grace and mercy impureth vnto me and withall wooâ—keth in me faith whereby I apply the same vnto my selfe so that in this sence I may presume to say the righteousnes of Christ is mine and that therein I serue my God truely as he that laboured so much euen to anotamize the worke of iustification hath for an eternall Maxime set downe that Christ is made vnto vs righteousnes wisedome 1 cor 1 30 sanctification and redemption and else where That in him we are compleat Col. 2 10 The fraile wit of man hath deuised a law whereby an act doue by one is remitted from him that did it to him that gaue consent and commission for the doing of it But the vnsearchable wisedome of our God from the deepe reach of his mercy and compassion without so much as our knowledge for he knew vs from euerlasting and before the foundation of the worlde contriued this meanes for our deliuery hath more then admirably conueyed vnto vs the memorable act of Christes humiliation and satisfaction and by his imputation and our aprehension which is likewise his guifte freelye made it ours The worke it selfe which is Iustice not altred by the exchange of the subiect but onely inattribute It being I egall in Christ in vs Euangelicall If then the righteousnesse of Christ thus be made ours if his obedience and satisfaction be thus freely bestowed vppon vs What should hinder vs it may be meruailed from affording due entertainment to so vnspeakeable a benefit and that we make not true vse of so great aduantage Is not this the delectablest food that euer any hungry stomacke longed after Is it not the softest couch that the wearied soule can find to repose vpon Questionlesse it is and therefore whosoeuer resolueth to fare well shoulde frame himselfe to this diet and he that loueth to lie soft must become his owne Harbinger and make sure in time to take vp this lodging For this is the food of eternall life this is the bed of euerlasting rest Peter not himself but being then and not only then out of his proper Element for he knew not what he said brake with christ about building of tabernacles on the mount Thabar But hee that vppon this foundation which is christ himselfe shall aduisedly erect the fortresse of his hope and Tabernacle of his felicity may be truely said to be his owne man though scarcely as the apprehension of men goeth now a daies and that he is in the right For he knowes what he doth and that his building though all those wordely fleshly and diuellish aduersaries combino in oppugnation can neuer be subuerted In more propper sence therefore then Peter spake it I may boldely say Heere is good being good for the King good for the Begger good for all heere is good being indeed and heere am I constantly resolued let neuer so many millions of misbeleeuers rest vppon what other rotten dependance they list to set downe my rest for euer This stay I know to be sure and neuer shrincking this supportation I am sure is strong and neuer shaketh This this is our soules most firme and neuer-failing anchorage yea this righteousnes of our sweete and louing sauiour is not onely a sure strong and neuer failing foundation but it is the onely sure stronge and neuer failing foundation whereupon we must resolue to build all our happines for euer if euer we resolue to for to relie vpon ought besides that the earth or the heauens themselues can afford in the great and weightie cause of our iustification is to trust vnto that which shall neuer stedde vs and most vndoubtedlie to become most vnhappie Now this righteousnesse of our mercifull redeemer so aduantageable to all those that constantly depend thereuppon I consider in his perfect obeying to the law of God which we had transgressed and coulde neuer of our selues haue fulfilled and his painefull vndergoing the punishment proper to such our transgressions euen the wrath of his father which was incensed by no satisfaction of man or Angel could euer haue bin appeased O sweet vneffable and incomprehensible mercie of our God who out of his owne bosome hath distilled a balme to cure all our wounds though neuer so mortall and albeit so deseruedlie receiued in the traiterous breach of his sacred ordinaunces and not spared euen his owne heart bloud to wash awaie our vncleannesse and to purge vs that were his enemies from all our corruption The meanes that conueieth vnto us this mercie of God the father in this merite of God the sonne is as I formertouched a liuelie iustifieng faith begotten in our harts by God the holi-Holi-ghost who must needes be thefficient cause of the said Faith as the true knowledge and trust in Christ is the formall the gospell the instrumentall and the finall gods glorie By which faith it being The ground of thinges which are hoped for Hebr. 11 1 and the euidence of things which are not seene or a stedfast supernaturall knowledge and firme apprehension of Gods kindnes in Christ Iesus towards vs. Many celestiall indowmentes and good workes are kindled in the mind and hart and flame forth of the life and conuersation of euerie true beleeuer as repentance hope loue inuocation obedience iustification adoption patience consolation mortification peace of conscieÌ„ce ioy in the holighost and regeneration with the fruits therof All of them togither with diuers other such like heauenlie infused qualities though not distinguishable in time but in nature though essentially being Gods gifts and immediatelie proceeding from his grace yet properlie either begotten wrought or apprehended by the saide Faith it being in vs a cause they the necessarie effects the root and they the inseperable braunches So that when I affirme my religion to be The true seruice of God and that seruice to be performed truelie by vs in the righteousnes of Christ I do not herein exclude our workes as impertinent or vnnecessarie thereunto or deny but that good workes are Gods seruices and that therein it pleaseth him to be glorified But because
dare saie that if he were not acquainted with the plot nor would haue aplauded it if he had beene but beareth a minde opposite to such deseignes he is an honester man then some of his predecessors haue beene Witnesse the letter which N. the Cardinall of Como sent vnto Parry for the murthering of our deere deceased Soueraigne of famous memory Queene Elizabeth to this effect SYr the Popes holines hath perused your letter and cannot but commend your good disposition resolution which as you say tendeth to the publike benefit wherein his holinesse exhorteth you to persist and to effect that which you promise And because you may be the better assisted by that good spirit which hath induced you to this his blessednesse graunteth you full pardon and forgiuenesse of all your sinnes as you desired assuring you that besides the merit which you receiue in heauen his holinesse will become a further debtor to acknowledge your deseruings in the best sort hee may And the rather for that you vse so great modesty in pretending nothing Put therefore in execution your honorable and holy thoughtes and looke to your safety And so I present my selfe hartely vnto you and wish you all good and happy successe From Rome the thirty of Ianuary 1584. Yours to dispose N. Cardinall of Como If this letter will not fatisie you that your Popes haue approued such bloody courses take notice I pray you how Pope Gregory the ninth made a decree Decretum Greg. 9 cause 23 that anye man might renounce and imbrewe his handes in the bloud of his kinsinan his sonne his father or whomsoeuer without destinction in case he were an Hereticke as al were adiudged that professed not papistry And how Pope Sextus quintus tooke vpon him the Office of an orator and in a publicke and premeditated speech before all his cardinals extolled to the skies that Wicked Monke which so murthered Henry the third King of France commending the murther for a notable rare and merueilous peece of worke condemning the murthered as an vnfortunate king dying in his sinne and bestowing no worse a title then Religious man vpon the villaine that was the murtherer And lastly Bulla 〈…〉 how Pope Pius quintus practised the death of our saide Queene Elizabeth ánd sent his Bull for that purpose importing as followeth It is our will and we commâ—und that the subiects of England take themselues to armes against Elizabeth their Queene In these few mirrors the eye that is not vtterly blind may plainely discerne whether your Popes be compact of nothinge but fanctety and integrity as they are continually described vnto you and howe their harts cleaning fast to the former grounds rest affected in such a case of murthering princes and incitinge their subiects to rebellion This seemeth then a weake shâ—lâ—er but shame must haue a couer though it be but of fig leaues I could methinkes out of the bowels of christian charity from my hart deplore that they who professe the true seruice of God and in some sort call vppon the name of Iesus should so far degenerate from the nature of a christian as to plot and prosequte to the period such a monstrous and diuellish deseign as the hart of the most irreligious and hardest-frozen Atheist would haue trembled at and the worst of those barbarous Seythian bloud-suckers could not but haue abhorred Which the idolatrous Turke and all wicked Ethnicks will for euer I think as an argument against the pretious bloude of our fauiour cast into the teeth of Christendome because it putteth down call the world for a point of immanity irreligion and compleat vilany Inquire said Moses of the antiant daies which are before thee since the day that God created man vppon the earth and from one end of heauen to the other if euer there were the like thing done And is not this speech though froÌ„ a different ground proper to this conspiracy if the last worde be left out Indeede it was not absolutely done for the bow brake at the vp hot It was done to these your catholicks that wished and went about the doing of it We giue them like thankes and GOD without Repentance will giue them the like reward as if it had bene done But it was not done to our Kinge to our Queene to our Prince and those thousandes which by the power of that infernall blast shoulde no doubt haue accompanied them to the presence of the eternall Maiesty It was not done vnto them blessed be our mercifull God that vndid it and out of his all-louing kindnes to his church so gratiously put his owne right hande which bringeth mighty things to passe betwixte the purpose and the execution Surely they thought themselues of gods priuy counsell In the letter to the lord Moun togle God and man haue concurred to punish the wickednes of the time But had they bin so much as of his court they would better haue known his pleasure for there they would haue herd the Lord giuing them this precept Thou shalt not kill There Dauid would haue asked them this question Who can lay hand on the Lord annotnted and be guiltlesse There Paule would haue set them downe this position Whosoeuer resist purchase to themselues damnation The Tyrauntes boasted that they could do mischiefe In the said Letter to the Lord Mo. I say they shal receiue a terrible blow but we felt that the goodnesse of God still indured The Lord according to the prayer of Dauid woulde not deliuer the soules of so many of his Turtle Doues vnto the multitude of their enemies and therefore he shot at them with a swift aroow hewed the snares of these vngodlie ones in pecces yet in somthing they said truth the conclusion of that confident menace fell out right And yet they shal not see who hurt them In the said Letter They do not indeed God that shielded them from that terrible blow be euer praised They do not see who hurt them but they see that which those vipers little thought they shoulde haue seene they see some of those that woulde haue hurt them and I hope will see the rest howsoeuer I knowe they are seene and will be remembred accordinge to his blessed will that best knoweth how to rewarde them They doe not see who hurte them but they see who preserued them from hurt His Maiesty doeth see and acknowledge that it was the same God that stoode so neere his holy father King Dauid in al his daungers That saued his life so oft from destruction and crowned him with such mercy and louing kindnesse that it was the same God that stucke as close to his deare Sister Queene Elizabeth in all her troubles and from her cradle till he had set the crown vpon hir head during al the time of hir most famous and victorious raigne preserued her as the Apple of his eie and neuer left her vntill he had chaunged her corruptible crowne of golde to