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	life_n	work_n	7,030	5	6.3476	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B07586	A Christian letter, containing a graue and godly admonition to such as make separation from the church assemblies in England and elsewhere. VVritten in Latine, by that most Reuerend and learned man, Master Francis Iunius, diuinitie reader at Leyden in Holland, and translated into English, by R G..	Junius, Franciscus, 1545-1602.; R. G., fl. 1602.	1602 (1602)	STC 7298.5; ESTC S91785	8,598	20

theatre of the Church in the circle of the world Ah beloued brethren was it euer heard of that any priuate man to say nothing of a great communitie was euer amended by this course Further consider I pray you before whom yee bring these things I will say of my selfe to whom alone yee will commit this your little booke I know not whether in this your little booke yee appeale to me as to an intercessor or examiner or a Iudge For if as an intercessor were it not better that your complaints were kept secret then layed open which tendeth to reproch and the Church of Christ innumerable soules weake strangers to be beaten with the types of your impressiō It is most manifest that they against whom yee deale will be more prouoked by these grieuous things If as an examiner by what right can I doe it who haue no lawfull authority from God from the Church from the Magistrate or from both the parties neither if it should be committed would I easily accept it I am so priuie to my selfe of my owne insufficiencie for who am I or what am I that I should be able throughly to see euery particular thing concerning you and them which are required to a iust examination And this the right course of examination doth require otherwise as Seneca wisely faith he that iudgeth one party being not heard albeit he iudgeth that which is right yet he is vniust Yee are not a little deceiued in this your iudgement beloued brethren Yee almost do me an iniury when ye call me to be a busie body or think that I wil take vpon me the part of an examiner or that which is more subiect to enuie and farre from duetie of a Iudge And brethren that which I say of my selfe thinke that is the answere of other brethren in Churches and Vniuersities No wise man will easily goe downe the steps or clime vp to the seate of iudgement Concerning your faith and doctrine something may be said if you expound it and if the thing be done in order For touching the accusation of your countreymen and of matters passed to and fro no wise man by my consent wil take vpon him the burthen of iudging And for Gods sake consider the euent of this fact For I pray you whom would it profit if that were done which yee desire Certainly neither would it profit you nor them nor these with whom ye soiourne nor the Church of God Contrariwise whom would it not hurt This thing would set you more on fire it would more alienate them whom yee iniuriously traduce to be enstranged from you For this is not the way of teaching nor of informing nor of seeking reconciliation To rent the good men whose hospitality yee doe commodiously vse or to diuide them from you or amongst themselues which duetie they haue not deserued of you by their hospitalitie will make that impudent man which should vsurpe this authoritie a scorne to ill tongues while good men would pittie his vaine labour and your vaine expectation Lastly that I may also adde this marke brethren how sincerely and brotherly I deale with you albeit you might and would lawfully both of your faith which yee declare and also to giue sentence of the fact of the accusation which yee bend against your Countreymen Yet yee by this course and maner of dealing haue taken from me that which yee require touching your fact Ye will maruaile perhaps at that which I say and yet it is so For you doe so require my iudgement as you doe also require the iudgement of all Students and Vniuersities in common then you doe not desire that I should doe it alone but if particularly doe you thinke that any of vs will be so mad that when the iudgement of so many good men and diligence is desired some one Palaemon should take vpon him the chiefest parts and should by him selfe speake of that thing which is required of so many as learned yea better learned and better furnished with pietie iudgement and experience which requireth a serious consultation an holy communication and a ripe in offensiue iudgment But of the third thing what shall I say touching the conclusion which you draw from thence that is from those premisses if I shall yet determine any thing on either side it were vtterly vniust Wherefore I verily brethren suspend my iudgement in this cause euen as God nature reason and al lawes command me to do Ye know the causes by these things which ye haue now read shal learne besides by other things which God shal minister vnto you I hope by the spirit of trueth and wisdome I ought not to iudge with my selfe of matters vnknowne at least not so euident neither yet with such forward boldnesse to pronounce among you or others the matter being not sufficiently manifest to my selfe God knoweth and iudgeth them which stand or fall as many as are his seruants Otherwise I trust yee are not ignorant that there are three things which euen from the verie infancie of the Church the holy fathers would haue to be distinguished by the word of God among the people of God namely faith or doctrine conuersation or manners and the order of discipline And all wise men haue taught that with one consent and deliuered it to posteritie that where the foundation of the truth of doctrine remaineth which is the piller of saluation although with most corrupt manners and discipline there the Church remaineth that no man ought rashly to separate himselfe frō that Church whiles he may tarry in it without shipwracke of faith and conscience or take from it the name of a Church especially seeing euery Church consisteth of Pastors and flockes which if some Pastors or Prelates trouble yet it is vnmeete that this name either should be taken away from the other Pastors which Christ doth witnesse by the doctrine of truth or from the flocke which Christ hath purchased with his owne bloode and doth daily sanctifie with the washing of the newe birth by the worde This ought to be sufficient for you if any thing offend you at home Now the fatherly mercifull prouidence of God hath prouided for you elsewhere Certainely whiles yee inueigh against those Churches yee shal make that your cause neuer the better neither more probable with good men which thing if yee haue not yet considered and conceiued by my aduise and counsell and by the admonition of those which wish you wel experience it selfe at last God grant it be not to late and informe you in good will prooue all these things vnto you For by the trueth of doctrine holinesse of life by the worke of faith and patience and by the dueties of charitie euen towards them of whome yee professe that yee are wronged yee shall rather approoue your selues and your cause then by outcryes and publishing of writings euen as our Sauiour is saide to bring iudgement to victorie not by filling the streetes with shouting and clamours but by blowing gently into the smoking flax and tender handling the bruised reede which thinges seeing they be so I beseech you most louing brethren in Christ by that most holie name of Christ which yee professe by those bowels of mercie wherewith Christ hath embraced vs from on high that yee would thinke of another course that yee would take another way to edification to saluation to peace If there be any consent shake not your faith which is not to be winnowed againe by new reasons This course is suspitious but if it must neede be sifted let it suffice you that it be first approoued by those seruants of God among whome yee dwell this is certainely a lawfull course Forgiue the former iniuries if any haue beene by Christian charitie to them from whom yee haue receiued the same hide them from others by Christian wisdome There is no feare that by so doing yee shall suffer violence God will enlarge your harts by the spirite of charitie most commodiously Looke to your selues that ouercomming al sharpnesse and al bitternesse of minde yee may be acceptable to Christ and profitable to the Church and that the odour of your pietie may be spread in speach in life in order to all the godly most sweetely without the stench of enmitie and schisme Iudge not that yee be not iudged But abstaine from those heauie conclusions and determinations as they call them against other men neither labour either to get Abetters or partakers in that your former iudgement which would be saide in you to be a spice of faction in them of impudencie or else to drawe them to an vnseasonable vnciuill inconuenient or dangerous deliuerie of opinions Pitie your selues I beseech you most louing brethren and the whole flocke which is gathered among you haue pittie of them whome thorough error infirmitie yee cry out be hurt Pitie your entertainers among whome it were a most iniurious thing that ye should sowe these tares especially being admonished And it would be a greate indignitie by clamours and writings to brede in them suspicions and sinister opinions eyther of your selues or of those your aduersaries as you count them or els of both Finally pitie the Church of Christ which verily it is not comely nor expedient neither in any case tolerable among so many and greeuous wounds which are giuen vnto it to be further galled with this particular wound So let God almightie loue you and Iesus Christ that most mercifull Lord and our Sauiour be mercifull vnto you And if I shall be able to doe any good in the publicke cause and in your cause assure your selues that I will spare no diligence no labour no paines that you with vs and all togither may be filled with sanctimony without which none shall see God with the good things of the Lord in his house and before his face And the God of peace which hath raised from the dead our Lord Iesus that great sheepeheard of the sheepe by the blood of the eternall couenant make you perfect in euery good worke to doe his will working in you that which is acceptable in his sight by Iesus Christ to whom be glorie for euer and euer Amen And I pray you brethren suffer this word of exhortation which I haue briefely written vnto you The grace of God be with you all Amen From Leyden this Saturday the 9. of Ianuary 1599. Yours in the Lord Francis Iunius FINIS