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	lord_n	sin_n	3,005	5	4.4939	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87840	A decade of grievances, presented and approved to the right honourable and High Court of Parliament, against the hierarchy or government of the Lord Bishops, and their dependant offices, by a multitude of people, who are sensible of the ruine of religion, the sinking of the state, and of the plots and insultations of enemies against both.	Leighton, Alexander, 1568-1649, attributed name.	1641 (1641)	Wing L1023; Thomason E172_5; ESTC R8298	2,505	8

A DECADE OF GRIEVANCES Presented and approved to the Right Honourable and High Court of Parliament against the Hierarchy or government of the Lord Bishops and their dependant offices by a multitude of people Who are sensible of the ruine of Religion the sinking of the State and of the plots and insultations of enemies against both The tottering Prelates with their trumpery all Shall moulder downe like Elder from the wall Printed in the yeare 1641. SIONS PLEA Against The Prelacy RIght Honourable and high Senatours you are not unacquainted how the affrighting and turmoyling troubles of the heart speake in the faces of all true hearted subjects expressing often by their sighes and grones and also vented by their patheticall complaints the moving cause whereof is our calamity partly already seized and partly making haste as it is further threatned to seize upon us But to our shame and confusion of faces we must confesse that of the provoking cause of this calamity namely sinne we are nothing so sensible as we should be or if wee complaint of sinne yet we finde not out that Ashteroth or maine nationall sinne which is the conjunct or immediate working cause of all the evill that is upon us When a body politique is runne all into one festered sore of sinne and one benumming bruise of judgement then the universall and painfull distemper taketh away the discerning faculty of the master sore that hath bred and fed all the rest which indeed must either be sought out and removed as the principall cause or it will never prove a cure Though the wrath of God be revealed against all ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse yet for some one capitall sin especially the Lord departeth from a State and turneth it upside downe This might be instanced in Israel joyning himselfe unto his idols which made the Lord unto him as a moath and unto the house of Iudah as rottennesse This principle Israel understood when they sought againe and againe and sought out the cause why he fell before Benjamin The same course took Iosua in humbling himselfe to finde out Achan and the excommunicate thing He might have found out and also removed many other sinnes yet if he had not found out the thing of the curse he might have mourned his heart out before he had prevailed with the Lord against the enemy How to finde out Achan or golden wedge and Babilonian garment hoc opus c. for it is not obvious to every man Yea this spirit is neither found out nor cast out but by fasting and prayer Yet wofull experience the common schoolmaster hath formerly discovered to the Chariots and horsmen of Israell and now doth discover this very same to be the very cheefe cause of our calamitie that wee pitch upon we do not exclude our own sinnes nor others sins for many sins and many enditemens are against us but this is the master sin as we conceive and that upon this ground that the capitall sin of a nation is not the higest sin abounding in the highest measure against which there is any lawes established but that is the maine and master sinne which is established by a law And this is that framing of mischife by a law that the prophet speaketh of called in another place the commandement of man establishing sin Now give us leave Right Honourable to demand what sin is established by law in this common-wealth but the hierarchy and their acoutrements and therefore we verily believing by the grievances following offer to demonstate that the hierarchy and their housholdstuffe is the capitall sinne and maine cause why all this evill is come upon us I. First may it please your honours to take notice that the calling of the Hierarchy their dependants offices and ceremonies whereby they subsist are all unlawfull and Antichristian II. The hierarchicall government cannot consist in a nation with foundnesse of doctrine sincerity of Gods worship holinesse of life the glorious power of Christs government nor with the prosperity and safety of the commonwealth III. The present Hierarchy are not ashamed to beare the multitu●e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that their calling is Iure divino Bu● they dare not but confesse when they are put to it that their ca●ling is a part of the Kings prerogative So that they put upon God what hee abhorreth and will hold of the K●ng when they can doe no other IV. They abuse many w●●es that power from the King by changing ●dding and taking away at their pleasure to the greevous vexation of the subject the dishonouring of his Majesty and the making of the laws of none effect V. The priviledges of the laws and the hierarchiall goverment cannot consist together VI. The loialty of obedience to the Kings Majesty and his laws cannot possibly stand with the obedience to the hierarchy VII All the unparalleled changes bloudy troubles devastations desolations persecutions of the truth from forraines or domesticks since the yeare of our Lord 600. arising in this Kingdome and all the good interrupted or hindered hath had one or more of the hierarchy as principall causes of them VIII All the fearfull evills of sin and judgement for the present reigning amongst us and threatning against us to omit the black desolation of our sister Churches wee conceive to bee the birth of the womb● and the nu●slings of the brest of the hierarchy IX If the herarchy be not removed the scepter of Christs government namely disciplin● advanced to its place there can be no healing of our sore no taking up of our controversi● with God yea our desolations by his rarest Iudgements are like to be the astonishment of all Nations X. Lastly right Honourab●● I● you strike at the hierarchy removing that Ashteroth or grand I●oll and erect the purity of Christs ordinances we are confident that there shall be a ceasing from exorbitant sins a removall of judgement a recovery of Gods favour a repairing of the breaches of the Church and Commonwealth a redeeming of the state a dashing Babells brats against the stones Yea this shall remove the wi●ked from the throne strike a terrour and astonishment to the hearts of all forraigne and domesticke foes In a word God will goe forth with us and smite our enemies Yea a glorious prosperity shall rest upon Zion King State and Common-wealth Thus having laid a Dec●de of evils arising as so many corroding ulcers out of the body of the hierarchy wee wish your Honours might prevaile with them by faire meanes to take Hierax for a president without exception who forsook the Prelacy as Isidore witnesseth in his epistle 223. meeerly for the unlawfulnesse of the calling which calling was not then come to that height of unlawfulnesse by many degrees that now it is A certaine Monke being chosen Bishop refused the burthen who after his death as they say Caesar Histerb Illustr miracl lib. 2. cap. 29. appeared to his friend speaking to him thus Si Episcopus fuissem peritssem If I had beene a Bishop saith he I had been damned To conclude wee desire to say no more to your Honours but up and do what the Lord hath bidden you Magnum iter ascendis sed dat tibi gloria vires Non est è terris mollis ad astra via FINIS