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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	lord_n	see_v	4,192	5	3.2926	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02786	A discourse of the seuerall kinds and causes of lightnings Written by occasion of a feareful lightning which on the 17. day of this instant Nouember, anno Domini 1606. did in a very short time burne vp the spire steeple of Blechingley in Surrey, and in the same melt into infinite fragments a goodly ring of bells. By Simon Harward.	Harward, Simon, fl. 1572-1614.	1607 (1607)	STC 12918; ESTC S103922	10,214	24

A DISCOVRSE OF THE SEVErall kinds and causes of Lightnings Written by occasion of a fearefull Lightning which on the 17. day of this instant Nouember Anno Domini 1606. did in a very short time burne vp the spire steeple of Blechingley in Surrey and in the same melt into infinite fragments a goodly Ring of Bells BY SIMON HARWARD Psal 145. Vers 17. The Lord is iust in all his waies and holy in all his workes THOV SHALT LABOR FOR PEACE PLENTIE LONDON Printed by Iohn Windet and are to be sold by Iefferey Chorlton at his shop neere the North dore of Pauls 1607. Honoratissimo Domino D. HOVVARDO Baroni de Effingham illustrissimi Comitis Notingamiensis filio et heredi domino suo colendissimo omnia prospera faelicia * ⁎ * CVi potius munus praeclare ac nobilis Heros Hoc donare queam sit licet exiguum Quàm tibi cuius in auxilio Blechingleienses I am tristes totam spem posuere suam Sperant permultos per te domine inclite amicos Tempore posse quidem se reperire breui Per quos campanae amissae sibi restituantur Debito vt ad templum tempore conueniant Concipiantque preces humiles vt Rex Iacobus Viuat sit sanus floreat vigeat Sēper Howardos solito amplectatur amore Sic villa haec saluam se fore non dubitat Sic Christoque vir ample placebis qui tibi donet Nestoreos sanos omni in honore dies Amplitudini tuae deuotissimus Simon Harward The preface to the Christian Reader IT is not without great cause pronounced by the wise man that no man knoweth either loue or hatred which Saint Bernard doth expound to be ment of naturall man that man by nature doth not know whether he be in the loue or in the hatred of god but the spiritual mā doth discerne all things But saint Hierom doth better interpret it to bee spoken of things vnder the Sunne which wordes are vsed by Solomon fiue seuerall tymes in the selfe same chapter By things then vnder the Sunne that is by the outward accidents of this life no man can discerne either loue or hatred because sorrowes sicknesses losses and calamities do befal to the godly as wel as to the wicked but the triall of our selues doth consist in inward graces to wit with what faith in God and what loue toward God we indure the said afflictions what good vses we make of them to our selues and how in the middest of them all we do possesse our soules with patience Sondry fearefull punishmentes by lightnings haue bin inflicted in many corners of this land in this cleare light of the preaching of the gospell partly vpon Paules in London and partly on other places of this realme And the like or farre greater haue bin shewed heretofore in the time of Popery and blindnesse The french Chronacles do testifie that in the year of our Lord 1534. at which time France was ouerwhelmed with idolatry superstition the citie of Claraualla being stricken with lightning about noone dayes did so fiercelie burne that in three howers space their town castles and churches were vtterly consumed VVe must needs acknowledge that our sinnes do deserue a farre deeper punishment then did the offences of our forefathers They were as seruants sent out in the night time and therefore if they missed their way their faults cannot be so heauy as ours who are as seruants sent out of the cleere day light where God giueth one talent he expecteth the increase of one but where he giueth ten talents he doth iustly demand the increase of ten VVhat vses we are to make of these iudgements of God vnder the Sunne I haue briefely according to the shortnesse of time set downe in this smal treatise which here now I do commit to thy view both thee and it to the good blessing of the Almighty From Bansted this twentieth of Nouember An. Dom. 1606. Thine in the Lord S.H. A DISCOVRSE OF THE SEVERAL Kindes and Causes of Lightninges WHen the Lord Almighty doth any where shew extraordinary tokens of his iudgementes it behoueth such as neere dwellers to resort to the place and not only to take view of the punishment but also to lay it deepely to their heartes For there are some punishments which in Greeke are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 punishmentes of vengeance there are some which are termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 punishments of correction and means to draw vs to amendment of life and some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 punishmēts of triall to trie our faith and patience The consideration whereof moued me this present weeke to visite the towne of Blechingley being a towne not onely neare vnto me but also hauing such inhabitants as vnto whome for many yeeres for sundrie kindnesses I am much beholden when I came I found their case to be equall if not worse then the rumor or report which was before published I found that by the lightning which came with the terrible thunder on Munday being the 17. day of this instant Nouember about ten of the clocke in the night the Spire steeple of the said Bleachingley hauing beene lately new couered to the great charges of the parrish in three howers space was vtterly consumed with fire The steeple was but about twelue fadome high aboue the battlements of the square stone worke but it was a steeple spreading downeward very large in circumference The stone worke which bare it being also about twelue fadom high is a long square of one twenty feet one side and eighteene feete the other side It is thought by good workemen that two hundred loades of timber will not suffice for the erecting of such a steeple as that stone-worke did lately beare I found also the belles being before a sweet ring and so large that the Tenor waighed twenty hundred waight partly melted into such fragmentes as may perhappes bee melted againe and partly burnt into such cinders or intermingled with such huge heapes of cinders as it will neuer hereafter serue to the former vses thereof These grieuous losses are by diuerse sortes of people in sundrie wayes interpreted Some do account of them as a particular iudgement of God against the sins of the inhabitantes of that towne of Blechingley But I am not of their opinion partly because as I cannot excuse the inhabitantes of the said towne of sundrie grosse abuses so am I fully persvvaded a number of tovvnes neare adioyning to them are in the like iniquities nothing inferiour to them and partly because in the extremitie of this fire vpon the church the tovvne and tovvnesmen vvere miraculouslie preserued The church standeth in the East ende of the tovvne and the vvinde though it somtimes changed yet it still kept neare the vvest point droue the flame frōvvard frō the houses A thatched barne and certaine poore houses neere adioyning to the Church were so wonderfully preserued that we must needes confesse and acknowledge that in

chāber to chamber to seeke where he might bee safest but nothing would preuaile The flashes in the ende ouertooke him and he perished miserably So in the second Booke of the Kings fire came down from heauen vpon the two captaines of Ahazia king of Israel and vpon both their bands of man and destroyed them because their Lord the King had highly displeased God when in the time of his sicknesse he sent his seruants to consult with Beelzebub the god of Ackron Another sinne plagued vsually by lightnings is Pride and Ambition Dionysius Halicarnassaeus sheweth that Alladius an auncient king of the Latins who raigned before Romulus vvas so prowd and ambitious that he coūterfeited thundrings and lightnings about his palace because hee vvould bee esteemed as a god amongst his people But at the last his Palace vvas set on fire vvith lightning from heauen and in the same he fearefully perished So Diodorus Siculus vvriteth of a king of Clide vvho caused himselfe to be dravvne vp and dovvne in a Chariot vvherein vvere deuises of Torches and squibbes counterfeiting thunders and lightnings that so he might be deemed a god amongst his subiects but in the height of his ambition he was stricken with a thunderbolt from heauen and came to a most wretched end This then is one cause why lightnings doe commonly strike the highest places according to that of Horace Feriuntque summos fulmina montes Lightnings strike commonly the hills that are most hie Not onely because the highest places are most subiect to the iniuries of the clowdes seeing euery agent doth worke most strongly vpon his neerest matter as the Philosophers giue the reason and because euill spirits dwelling in the aire doe most seeke to annoy Temples and Churches which commonly are the highest edifices as some Diuines doe giue the cause but also because by that example God doth warne mankind not to seeke to extoll it selfe by haughtines of minde And this was seene by the Poet Ouid Viue tibi quantumque potes praelustria vita Saeuum praelustri fulmen ab arce venit Liue to thy selfe and too much height auoide High towers are by lightninges most annoide An other sin plagued with lightning is cruelty and blood-shed that so iudgement may be without mercy to them that shew no mercy Hatto the Bishop of Mentz when in the yeare of Christ 918 by the instigation of Conrad the Emperour he endeuoured to murther Henry Duke of Saxony was suddenly slain with a stroke of lightning For this cause is the Lord in the Scripture so often called the Lord of hoastes that is the Lorde of Armies because all thinges in heauen and earth are a part of his Armie to plague the wicked and to fight for the godly In the heauens he hath fire to powre down vpon Sodom and Gomorrah hee hath in the aire thunderinges lightninges and blazing starres to terrifie the heartes of the wicked he hath the earth to swallow vp Core Dathan and Abiram the sea to drown Pharao and his Armie Dogges to licke vp Iezabels bloud beares to deuoure them that mocked Elizeus the canker-worm and Caterpillar to destroy the fruites of the vngodly yea there is no Creature so vile and base but it is a part of the hoast of God to punish and destroy euen the mightiest in the world Herod and Antiochus were two monstrous tyrantes yet was one of them destroied with lice and the other with worms Lightning hath but a poore and base beginning of exhalations drawne vppe from the earth yet by the power of God being inflamed gathering force in the aire it is enabled to confound whatsoeuer doth exalt it selfe against God his diuine Maiestie An other sinne which God doth punish with fire from Heauen is drunkennesse and whoredome as Ezechiel cap. 16. doth shew of the destruction of Sodom that it was for their fulnesse of bread that is excesse of meats and drinkes according to the Hebrew Phrase and for their committing abhomination that is for their filthy and damnable lustes Concerning these thinges I take not vpon me to iudge of the inhabitantes of the towne lately punished But I pray God that euery one may now so iudge himselfe that hee be no hereafter further iudged of the Lord. The second cause of the harms done by lightnings is for instructions sake that others may learne to take heed and to feare God and in this respect God dooth sometimes punish his dearest seruantes In the yeare of our Sauiour 1551. an honest Cittizen of Creutzburge standing by his table and a dogge laying by his feete were both of them suddenly slaine by a lightning yet a young child which stood hard by his Father was preserued safe Iob his flocke of seuen thousand sheepe his seruants were suddenly destroyed with fire from heauen not so much for the sinnes of Iob and his familie as to trie the faith of Iob and to make him a schoolemaister of Patience to all posteritie So it falleth out in all other kindes of punishments Doe you thinke saith our Sauiour Christ that those Galileans whose bloud Pilate mingled with their sacrifices were greater sinners then all other Galileans I tell yon nay but except yee amend your liues yee shall likewise perish or thinke yee that those eighteene vpon whome the Tower of Siloam fell were sinners aboue all them which dwell in Ierusalem I tell you nay but except ye repent yee shall all likewise perish The blind man in the ninth of Saint Iohn was borne blind neither for his owne sinnes nor for his parents sinnes but that the power of God might be shewed foorth vpon him There is none so desperate but will he nill he shall by thunderinges and lightnigns receiue admonition if not to instruct him to amendment of life yet at the least wise to condemn him in his owne guilty conscience we reade of Caligula the Emperour that in fearefull thundering●s hee would creepe vnder beddes and into the-strongest corners of his howse Whereof came this but-that he vnderstood there by that there was a God in heauen whose voice he did then heare and who in the ende would assuredly be reuenged of his ambitious cruel and filthy life The third chiefe cause of fearefull lightnings is called fatidicall or prognosticall when God doth by them forewarn vs of greater calamities to fall afterward vpon vs vnlesse wee amend our wicked and sinfull life In the yeere of our Lorde God 653. at Frisazium a towne of Saxony a great number both of houses and people were destroyed with lightning but there followed afterward a greeuous plague grassant ouer the whole Country So in the yeere 653. in the time of Constance the Emperour a fearefull fier fell from heauen but shortly after for the space of three moneths together their followed a most greeuous pestilence vpon all the places adioyning So in the yeare 1062. in the month of February there fell terrible lightnings vpon