Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	great_a	law_n	2,790	5	4.4124	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80541	A copie of tvvo vvritings sent to the Parliament. The one intituled motions for reforming of the Church of England in this present Parliament: most taken out of Irenaus Philadelphus. The other a humble petition unto the Parliament, for reforming of the Church of England: all taken out of the holy Scriptures.	Du Moulin, Lewis, 1606-1680. Motions for reforming the Church of England in this present Parliament.	1641 (1641)	Wing C6235; Thomason E238_12; ESTC R2679	18,517	27

A COPIE Of tvvo vvritings sent to the PARLIAMENT The one intituled Motions for reforming of the Church of England in this present PARLIAMENT Most taken out of Irenaeus Philadelphus THE OTHER A Humble PETITION unto the PARLIAMENT for reforming of the Church of England All taken out of the holy Scriptures NEHEMIAH 13.14 Remember mee O my God concerning this and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the House of my God and for the Offices thereof PSAL. 137 8 9. O Daughter of Babylon who art to be destroyed Blessed shall he be that repayeth unto thee thy reward which thou hast rewarded unto us O blessed shall he be that taketh and dasheth in-peeces thy Babe against the Rock Printed in the Yeare MDC.XLI The humbly Supplication of sundry of his Maiesties Faithfull Subiects who have now along time beene constrained to live as exiles abroad or to endure other greevious Persecutions at home for bearing witnes to the truth of Christ against the corruptions of Antichrist yet remaining in the Church of England To the Honourable and High Court of Parliament CRaving pardon upon our knees for our boldnesse wee most humbly beseech you to heare us a little with patience What DAVID spoke in his owne defence when his elder brother charged him with Pride haughtinesse of heart 1 Sam. 17 28 Is our answer now unto all such as shall lay upon us the like accusation vvhat have we now done Js there not a cause Sundry CAUSES there are which have moved us in all duetifull manner to become instant suters to his Highnesse and to you in the Cause of Jesus Christ. 1. 1 Cause of our Petition The great hope which his Majestie hath given of much good to bee done through the mercy of God by your meanes in Church and Common-wealth 2. We take our selves bound in conscience to speake at this present Fearing least otherwise through our silence 2 Cause the Motions which some have made might prove hurtfull and perilous both to Church and State How farre the Motioners are from speaking according to the law to the testimonie and seeking to have things reformed in the Church of England Esa 8 20 agreeable to the Patterne of the new Testament We shall shew in our next Petition Onely two things we desire may be here considered as being the speciall drift and maine of their Motions First in the whole there is much self-seeking For to what end is it motioned to have the Parish-ministers raised up to an equall height as it were of power and authoritie with the Bishops But that they and the Bishops together keeping from the people their Rights and Liberties in the Gospell may equally LORD it and doe what they please without controll But our hope is that the PARLIAMENT Psal 122.8 beeing men in whome the Lord hath putt wisdome and understanding will for their Brethren and Companions sake yea and for their owne soules sake too prudently foresee the evill and prevent the Motion and not put authoritie into their hands who wil be if they have it as great persecutors of the Saints as the Prelates formerly have beene and so instead of one Lordly and Domineering Bishop in a Diocesse we shall then have one in every Parish in some more to oppresse suppresse all such as walke up to their light more closely and conscionably in all Gods wayes then themselves We know what we speake and wee speake no more then what we have had wofull experience off and can make good by proofe The next is their mixing of Heaven Earth together Motioning for a discipline which is a very hotchpotch a gallemowfry compounded of Episcopie Presbyterie and Poperie thinking in likelyhood to please all sides by framing like the Samaritants a worship of sundrie religions But the Lord sees their halting Mal. 1 14. and will one day reward them for it in their owne bosome as they have deserved Cursed is the deceiver which hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing 3. Cause A third CAUSE moving us to Petition is in regard of you who are our PARLIAMENT-MEN What Paul said to Agrippa we say to you wee thinke our selves happie because we shall answer for our selves this day before you whom we know to be expert in all customes and questions that are amongst us In what a forlorne and desperate State our Kingdome was come unto before you came together wee are all very senceable off And howsoever many true Causes thereof have beene already discovered by your deepe wisdome and diligence Notwithstanding give us leave to adde this unto the rest That because the glorious Scepter of the Lord Iesus hath not beene hitherto advanced in our Land as it should have been our blessings have beene the fewer 1 Sam. 2 30. and our crosses the more Them that honour mee saith the Lord I will honour and them that despise mee shall be ligh●ly esteemed And how farre it shall please God to goe forth now in the worke of reformation by you wee know not But this we know if you altogether hold your peace at this time yet shall enlargement and deliverance arise unto the Kingdome of Christ from some other place And truely just it wil be with the Lord to purge away such drosse filth of the scarlet whore with the blood of the Nation which through your neglect shal be left in the Land Zach. 1 14. Psal 2. For thus saith the Lord of Hostes I am jealous for Ierusalem and for Sion with great jealousie and the Nations which will not kisse the Sonne and come under the sweete and easie Yoake of the Gospell hee will breake them in peeces with a red of Iron Oh that you would looke but to former PARLIAMENTS and consider how their Statutes and Acts made about Religion have occasioned afterwards sore troubles in the Land And why But because they were not made conformable to the will and Testament of Iesus Christ And what better successe may we now expect unlesse looking beyond State Policie and carnall reason there be a full closing with God in the truths of the Gospell Prov. 21 30. There is no wisdome nor understanding nor Counsell against the Lord. We therefore before God and the Lord Iesus Christ and the elect Angels beseech you to mind the necessity of a right and full reformation For if your care and strivings tend this way then shall the Earth yeeld her increase and God even our God shall blesse us 4 Cause Our 4. and last CAUSE of Petitioning is for Sions sake the Mount of the Lords holinesse and the place where his Honour dwelleth That which we desire herein is that remouing the Hierarchy and devised Leiturgie Christ true Ministerie Worship Government may be by Act established But if it be doutfull to you whether our request be lawfull Then our humble supplication is that it will please

retaine the marke of the Beast in part as fictions devised by men and comming from Rome hurtfull because they are bound to most unlawfull conditions for necessarily either they must be perjured or sin grosly as to present both Minister and people if they be not superstitious and prophane and thus they serve the tyranny of the Hierarchie and minister matter of filthy lucre to the Harpies of the Prelates Courts in so much that the more honest and better sort avoide such places as knowing they cannot exspect any blessing or protection from God therein 15 Touching buriall of the dead a Gen 23 3 4 5 9 17 18 9 29 21 22 44 45. Luke 9 60. it is no branch of a Ministers calling nor doth any Church dutie belong unto it For all praiers either over or for the dead are superstitious and vaine no such thing was used in the Apostles time neither do the Reformed Churches practise the same The like may be said of the celebration of mariage b Gen 2 2 23. Ruth 4 1 2 9 10 12 13. Ioh 2 1 2 3. Heb 13.14 it is no Ecclesiasticall action appertaining to the Ministery but civill and so to be performed For Baptisme as it is an ordinance of God so it is humbly desired that it may be purged from all childish and superstitious toyes and that no infant be admitted unto Baptisme whose Parents one at least are not members of some particular Church For the visiting of the sick seeing the prescript service of it is taken out of the Masse-booke we trust the Parliament will take course to have the same suppressed That so as it is Gods will we should visit the sick so we may do both his will and worke in his own way 16. For spirituall Courts so called they are humane devises c Matth 28 20. with 6 24 Ioh 3 35 36 10 4 5 15 14 Rom 6 16. 2 Thes 2 3 4 8 Gal 1 8 Rev 14 4 2 12. presumptuous insolencies such as were never planted by the Apostles in the Primitive Churches but long after erected by Antichrist against God and his Christ to the great prejudice and hurt of his Church and the lawfull jurisdiction thereof And therefore it is humbly petitioned that as must prophane things they may be by this present Parliament all rooted out and utterly overthrown without hope of restitution Touching Citations by Synods and Presbyteries with the knowledge of the Parish-minister and his presenting the delinquents and having a voice in the Censure c This neither is to be found in the Word of God and therefore no Christian man or woman is bound to submit and yeeld obedience unto it The rule of Christ for censuring delinquents is as we have declared that the sentence and judgement of Christ bee given by the whole Church whereof the parties are members provided it be executed in a due manner namely for sin and that also duely convicted and obstinately stood in 17. Our humble suit is that it would please his Majestie and this present Parliament that we may be suffered to live here in peace d Ps 41● 1. Pro 3 8 9. Ez● 6 7. M● 6 10 ● 2 Chron 19 10. Psal 82 3 4. professing and practising the truth of the Gospell without molestation either of Bishops or any other to impose what they please upon our consciences with such rigorous penalties as they have lately used we carrying our selves as loyall Subjects and leaving the suppressing abolishing or reforming of the abuses that we witnesse against to his Majesties and your discretion 18. As it is very meet that all Schools and Academies be purged from superstitious rites e Ps 11● 9 99 10● 1 Sam 1● 9 10 2 Kin ● 3 4 5. Mat 1● 51 52. and Popish doctrines and Orthodox Readers be provided so in speciall that Popish degrees in Theologie inforcement to single life f Heb 1● 4 1 Tim ● 2. in Colleges abuse of the study of prophane Heathen Writers with other like corruptions should be removed and redressed that so they may be the Wel-spring and Nurseries of true learning and godlinesse POST-SCRIPT THat we be not mis-understood touching Provintiall and Nationall Synods As if we should condemne all use thereof we have thought good to speak a word or two more fully in the thing As to shew out of Antiquity how ancient they are and what were the causes and grounds of their erection at the first how far they are lawfull and necessary in the Churches of Christ And when and how they came to be abused And this we will do in a very briefe way leaving a larger discourse till a more convenient time That there were no Synods according to the acceptation of the Word now amongst us all the time that the Apostles lived here upon the earth but every particular Congregation practised in and for it selfe all the ordinances of God It cannot be denied without losse of credit both to person and cause of the denyer in the eyes of all reasonable men a Whitgift against T. C. p. 180. 181. Bilson perpet gover cap. 15 p. 361. Sculting hier anar l. 11. p. 134 Sutclif discipl c. 8. p. 353. If we come down from thence to Trajans time which was about a 100. years after Christs Assention we shal not finde in any approved Author b Centur. Meydenb cont 1. c. 4 cent 6. 7. col 591. so much as the name of any such thing From Trajan passe we to Severus reigne c Cent 2 c 7 p 137 135 Brig o● R●c 12 which was about the yeare 195. and let the approved Auhours of that age be read and it will appeare as cleare as the Sun at noone day that the order of government was still popular● Neither was there any superiour Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction above the independant power which every particular Church had in it selfe Indeed between Severus and Constantines time we read in Eusebius d Lib. 3. c. 22 5. c. 16. Irenaeus e l. 3. c. 1. 2 3 Nicephorus f l. 4 c. 23 and other that neighbour Ministers came often together to confer of things serving for the generall good But here let it be noted 1. This they did of liberty ●nd not of d●tie● as if obliedged thereunto by any law of God g Zipperus l. 3. c. 7 .2 It was a free for any of the brethren to be present as for the officers h Cyp. i 1 Epist. 4. 3. Whatsoever they did at such meetings the same was of no force at all as to be counted a Church ●ct or sentence untill the whole Congregation first knew of it and gave their free consent unto the same i Gregor Nazia in orat fun de Patr. This ancient comming together of Ministers and Brethren call ye it a Synod or Convocation or what you will we hold both lawfull and necessary the better to pre●erve peace k Parker Eccl. pol.