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	reason_n	think_v	2,515	5	3.9487	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10269	Certaine questions by way of conference betwixt a chauncelor and a kinswoman of his concerning the churching of women		1601 (1601)	STC 20557; ESTC S105979	24,479	73

Certaine Questions by way of Conference betwixt a Chauncelor and a Kinswoman of his concerning Churching of Women 1601. Certeine questions by way of conference betwixt a Chauncelor and a kinswoman of his concerning Churching of Women Chauncelor TRulie Cousen I am sorie that you should thus vpō a pievish conceite of yours bring your self into this vn-necessarie trouble for a trifle and matter of nothing as it were Woman If you be sorie indeed as you pretende then you might haue let me alone and not haue caused your Apparitor to serue me as he did with Citation for assure your selfe if you had not troubled me I would never haue troubled my selfe about this trifle you speake of Chauncelor Nay I must not do so I must deale indifferentlie you know and not be partiall though you be my kinswoman Th'information being against you as well as others your name being presēted to me by the church Wardens with other women moe if I should leaue you out and proceed against them I should not doe that which were fitting for my place and office you know I am sworne to doe iustice Woman Indeed your office and place afoordes much iustice if it be well observed as ordinarie iustice as Billinsgate doeth loue friendship for a boxe of th' eare you are sworne you saye and will not that oath of yours alow you to shew as much favor and kindnesse to your kinswoman in a trifle as to a stranger that is no kinne to you in a matter of weight Chauncelor O I knowe where you are now I thought where you would bee straight I knew I should heare of it you meane mistres A.B. But in good faith your Minister did her wrong neither had he anie law to warrant him to doe that he vrged her vnto I cōfesse she made a fault before she was maried but the man you know made her amendes and I doe not heare but that they liue orderly and well nowe notwithstandinge all which your hotte spirited Minister of spight malice as itis thought would haue put them both to open penance if I had not stucke close to them Woman Mercifull Christ what neede anie witnesse to be produced against you when your owne mouth doeth so apparantlie cōdemne you The gentlewoman you confesse made a fault and what was that fault but simple Fornicatiō at the least For the which our Minister would haue done that which belonged vnto him if you would haue lett him and that whiche I take it by your leaue the Booke of common Prayer it selfe doeth warrant him to doe and you by your owne confession withstoode him in that good purpose of his Nowe surely my good man this is a sinne amongest others that you must repent of otherwise it wil be woe with you And I pray you tel me one thing Mistres A. B. is a straunger to you and I am your kinswoman her fault cover it shadow it as you will was vncleannesse at the least and that which you trouble mee for is but a Ceremonie as your self confesse a matter of no moment What warrant haue you then so stiflie to stande with her in her sinne and to deale thus sharplie with me and others in a thing indifferent or a matter of nothing Chauncelor Well gentle kinswoman seeing you are so snappish over-busying yourself in other folkes matters that apperteine not vnto you I pray you let me heare now how handsomely you can answere for your selfe Woman With whose matters did I medle I pray you did not you first name mistresse A. B. your selfe Chauncelor All is one for that I know you meant her when you said that my oath might as well alow me to shew fauour to my kinswoman in a trifle as to a strāger in a matter of weight Woman Well be it so then If your conscience did accuse you looke you to that But what haue you now to say to me and what is the cause why you haue sent for me Chauncelor You neede not aske you know it well enough I am sure It is for your foolish nicenesse in this trifling matter of Churching And I pray you in good sadnesse what reason haue you why you refuse to be Churched Woman If it be as you say a trifle the more to blame you to trouble your friends in so trifling a cause But what doe you meane by Churching Doe you meane that which is sett downe in the Booke Chauncelor Iust I meane that and none other For law will not warrant vs to presse you to any other Woman No nor I thinke to that neither if it be well examined But seeing you meane that kinde of Churching The reason in a woord why I refuse it is this Because I would be loth to shew my selfe either Iew or Papist Chauncelor Why will thankesgiuing to God after Childbirth make you a lew or a Papist Woman No Thankesgiuing will not But this manner of thankesgiving that you would haue me to obserue is in trueth no thanksgiving at all but a meere Iewish or Popish Purifying Chauncelor How doe you proove it to be no thankesgiuing Woman By the verie first institution of it For the Papistes that were the woorshipfull founders and devisers of it and knew best their own meaning did in the instituting of it giue it this title The Purification of Women after Childbirth Whereby it is manifest that their very drift and intent in th'institution was only for a Purification or Purging and therefore no thankesgiving Secondly there is no one woord matter or forme of thankesgiuing in the whole order of it as it is set downe in the booke and therefore it can not be that it was ordayned for Thankesgivinge though in the title thereof it be absurdlie so called Chauncelor But why doe you tearme it a Iewish or a Popish Purifying Woman It is Iewish in 2 respectes First in that the woman after she hath brought foorth a childe is held vncleane as vnder the Law til such time as she hath shewed herselfe in the Temple Secondlie in that shee is commanded to offer her accustomed offeringes which is drawen deriued from the Lamb and young Pigeons vnder the Law Popish it is in 3 respectes First in that it was instituted and devised by the Rapistes apishlie imitating the Iewes and bringing in one kinde of Purifying in steade of another Secondly in that the woman is commaunded to come as neare the communion table as in the time of popery they came to the high Altar Lastlie in regard of the Popish offeringe to weete the Chrisome For she is commaunded to offer th' accustomed offeringes which is sete downe to be the Chrisome In which regard you may as instlie trouble me and cal me hither for not offering the Chrisome as for not being purifyed and as good law you haue for th' one as th' other whiche makes me thinke as I sayed before that you haue no law amongest you but onelie the lawlesse law of your will and

I may truelie thanke God as for many other his mercies so especially for this that ever I came to this mans Ministery whoms yee so trouble amongest you I was indeed a Protestant before and thought well of myselfe and yet if I shall not lie to you I had no more Religion then my horse But now I may truly say that as my knowledge is in some measure increased so I neuer made conscience of sinning and offending God till I came to the place where I nowe dwell All which as I must and doe attribute to God as th' Author and Founteine so to our Minister as the meanes and instrument Chauncelor Indeede you haue made a very woorthie increase and mended the matter wonderous wel And all this is for nothing els but because you are come from Churching to No Churching what a wonderful cure and charge your Minister hath wrought in you I beleeue he vseth to Catechize you in nothing els but only in Churching you seeme to be perfect in the point Woman Well I would you could tell how to discharge a good conscience in your places any of you Chancelours aswell as our Minister doeth in his His ordinarie teaching is thankes be to God in matters of more moment then you speake of and if you heard him once your selfe I make no question but you would say so For mine owne part I never hearde him speake publikly of this particular custome of churching in my life further then might bee gathered out of any generall doctrine of his Indeed I confesse I haue had private conference with him about it and hee hath fullie satisfied me Chauncelor In what sort I pray you hath he fatisfied you may I be bold as to craue a copie or to be pertaker with you of your ghostly fathers resolutions Woman Why you haue heard the most of them alreadie and I haue made knowne to you at large the reasons that haue mooued mee to shake off and abandon this foolishe and superstitious custome of yours wherewith I had well hoped you had bene satisfied Chauncelor Indeede you haue told me many prety things but yet they bee such as I haue hearde of before Why they be the common reasons of you all amongst you I neuer had any of you before me but they haue pleaded euen as you doe or to the same effecte Woman The more saye I vnder correction haue you to aunswere for That havinge had so manifest reasons layed before you so long agoe and the same so often iterated and repeated vnto you there is yet no maner of relenting in you but you doe still persist and goe on in your course in troubling poore women without cause Chauncelor Why you know my Lord Bushop went farther with some of you not farre from your quarters and made the proudest of them crouch and come on their knees enforcing thē to be Churched in despite of them and that two or three yeares after they were layed You would thinke I deale hardlie with you if I should vse any of you so Woman Now sure it was Bushoplike done of him if he did so But what warrant I pray you had my Lord to make them crouch in this maner as you speake of Doeth the Booke or any Law of the lande authorize him to Church a woman 3 yeare after shee is brought to bedde shew me that I pray you for my learning Chauncelor Well you haue nothing to doe with that Therefore it shall be good for you Cousen as I haue told you to medle with your own matters to bee armed howe to aunswere for your selfe and not to deale in things impertinent to your place Woman Content then you giue me good counsell But remember your self I pray you that it was you that brought in the Bushop not I. I medled not with him till you spake of him But to desire to bee resolved in some things of you is not I hope impertinent to my place is it Chauncelor No god forbid whatsoever you desire to be satisfied in be bold I pray you to propound it and I will thank you and doe my best to resolue you as farre foorth as lieth in me Woman Why then in this Thankesgiving you speake of who is it that you would haue giue thankes Chauncelor Why the woman that hath bene deliuered Woman When is it that you would haue her giue God thankes Chauncelor When shee is strong and able to goe to Church Woman And not before would you haue her forgett her self and be vnthankfull till then Chauncelor Nay God forbid I hope shee hath more grace then so But I speake of publike thāksgiving not of private woman Why but the blessing you see is private and what reason is it then or what warrant or what example haue you out of the Scripture that there should be an ordinarie sett seruice in Publike for euery priuate and perticular blessing I would faine you resolved me in that If the Minister bee in duetie bounde to giue God thankes for euery private and particular bleshing why not then as well for my husbands fall of his horse as for my deliverance I tell you I holde my husbande a farre more woorthy member of the Church then my selfe and therefore I see no reason why yee should not cause him to bee Churched as well as me and so all others in our parishe that haue escaped either drowning or danger of death Chauncelor Me thinkes Cousen you doe not rightly consider of it as you should doe It is in my vnderstanding another maner of thing then you take it for There is you must marke in the thing a double blessing The birth of a babe into the world beeing an excellent creature of God And the deliuerance and dangerous escape of the woman No question but the Church in this her seruice hath a speciall reference and relation to both In which regard it may well be called more then a private or particuler blessing Woman Something you haue saied to the matter and yet when it is examined it will bee founde nothing A double blessing you call it The birth of the babe and the deliuerance of the woman But I say the Church in that set service of hers hath no manner of respecte at all to the former of thē that is the birth of the childe Chauncelor How proove you that Woman By the very practise of our Church whereof your selfe may bee a witnesse For if the woman die before her moneth there is no maner of seruice nor Thankesgiuing at all for the Babe though it thriue and prosper neuer so much Therefore the Church in those her churching prayers neuer regardeth that at all having prayed and giuen God thankes for the Babe before at Baptisme Chauncelor Well what of all that Woman Why then you must giue mee leaue to holde my former opinion That for the Church to establish a Publike seruice for euery private and ordinarie blessing as Child-birth is is without ground or warrant