Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	know_v	lord_n	see_v	3,997	5	3.2299	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10190	Lord bishops, none of the Lords bishops. Or A short discourse, wherin is proved that prelaticall jurisdiction, is not of divine institution, but forbidden by Christ himselfe, as heathenish, and branded by his apostles for antichristian wherin also sundry notable passages of the Arch-Prelate of Canterbury in his late booke, intituled, A relation of a conference, &c. are by the way met withall.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1640 (1640)	STC 20467; ESTC S115311	76,101	90

discourse then this of mine will admit Againe he saith ‡ If there be a jealousie or doubt of the Sense of the Scripture we must repaire to the Exposition of the Primitive Church and submit to that or call and submit to a Generall Councel c. Now if he shall quarrell this Scripture and those words of Christ forementioned as being either jealous or doubtfull of the sense thereof and so send me to the Primitive Church or call me to a Generall Councel for the determination of this point what shall we say For in no case can he yeeld the Scripture the honour to be sole Judge of controversies in faith And for the Primitive Church which he meanes namely that which came after Christ and his Apostles that he will say had Bishops or Prelates And for a Generall Councel that by his own verdict must consist of Prelates and so then shal be Judges in their own cause Therefore herein I must tell him plainly that first for the Primitive Church which was that of the Apostles never any one of them was a Prelate or Diocesan Bishop as we shall see more anon Secondly the next ages of the Church succeeding that of the Apostles knew no such Lord Bishops or Prelates as are now adayes with their Traines and Courts And when they began to get Prelacies old Hierome reprooved them and so did others Thirdly never any Generall Councel yet concluded that Prelates were jure divino Fourthly For a Generall Councel now to be called for the determining of this controversie which must consist onely of Prelates I deny them to be competent Iudges in this Case For by the Prelates own Confession * No man ought to be both party and Iudge in his own Cause And again the ‡ Prelate is too strict and Canonicall in tying all men to the decision of a Generall Councel and to yeeld obedience unto it yea although it determine a matter erronious in the Faith Now then if a Generall Councel of Prelates should determine that Prelates are jure divino although it be erronious yet according to the Prelates Rule all must yeeld obedience and submit thereunto And then we are gone if we commit this matter to a Generall Councel But we will passe by these and come to some other of his passages for his Prelacy He saith ‡ I beleeve Christ thought it fitter to governe the Church Aristocratically by Diverse rather then by one Vice-Roy A●d those Diverse he makes to be Prelates or Hierarchs or rather Archprelates Now except he verily beleeve that Prelates are the best men in the world how can he beleeve that Christ thought is fittest to governe his Church by them For Aristocracie is a Government of the best men Aristoi Optimi and therefore called Optimates most honourable for their vertues But are Prelates so Doth their extreme pride ambition covetousnesse voluptuousnesse idlenesse hatred and suppressing of Gods word persecution of Gods Ministers oppression of Gods people even all that professe godlinesse and extreme both injustice and cruelty without all Law or Conscience in Censuring poore innocent soules that come before them doe these their vertues make them to be the best men for Christ to thinke the fittest by whom to governe his Church unlesse in this respect Christ might thinke it fittest that seeing he thought it fittest to keep his true Church his little sto●ke alwayes under manifold tryalls of afflictions and persecutions as being the exercises of all that will live godly in Christ Iesus and the way through which they must goe into the Kingdome of God therefore for this very cause he might thinke it fittest to suffer Satan to set up Anticr●ist in the Temple of God with his Traine of Prelates who should prove the most vengable Instruments of persecuting and oppressing Gods true children of all other men in the world And this I beleeve to be true And againe I beleeve this to be true also that Christ thought it fittest to governe his true Church Aristocratically that is by the best men because he hath so expressed himselfe in his word Why Where and who be those best men Let my Lord Prelate have patience and I will shew him a cleare ground of this my faith such as he can never shew for his blind faith Those best men that Christ thought is fittest to governe his Church by are the severall Ministerss rightly qualified and lawfully placed over their Severall Congregations respectively And they are called both Presbyteri and Episcopi Presbyters or Elders and Overseers or as Prelates falsely style themselves Bishops But how are these o i aristoi the best men Because Christ requires such to have the qualities of the best men What be those First such a Bishop or Overseer must be blamelesse the husband of one wife not therfore one tyed from Marriage which is for Antichrists Priests vigilant sober of good behaviour given to hospitality apt to teach not given to wine no strik●r not greedy of filthy l●●re but patient not a brawler not covetous c. And in Titus Not selfe-willed not soon angry a lover of good men● sober just holy temperate holding fast the faithfull word that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainesayers Such therefore as call themselves the onely Bishops to exercise Lordship over many Ministers and Congregations and are proud heady high minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God cruell strikers with their High-Commission-weapons soone angry and never appeased againe not lovers but persecuters of good men not such as hold fast the wholesome word but suppresse it all they can forbidding others to convince the gainesayers as those of the Arminian party and the like and cutting off the Eares of those Ministers that should dare to reprove the Prelates notorious practises and attempts in setting up a false Idolatrous and Anchristian Religion for Christs Religion and such like such I say how can the Prelate beleeve to be of those diverse whom Christ thought it fittest to governe his Church by Againe another passage of his is this * She the Church of England beleeves That our Saviour Christ hath left in his Church besides his Law-booke the Scripture visible Magistrates and Iudges that is Arch-bishops and Bishops under a gracious King to governe both for Truth and Peace according to the Scripture and her owne Canons and Constitutions as also chose of the Catholick Church which crosse not the Scripture and the just Laws of the Realme So the Prelate In the next passage before the Prelate makes profession of his own Faith concerning Christs thought for Prelaticall Government and here he tells us what is the Faith of the Church of England about the same new Article of his beliefe●● And not unlikely it is ● that the Prelaticall Church of England is of the saine beliefe with her learned Champion and great Metropolitan But the faith both of the Prelate and his Church

be noted that till this Third time that they make their peace with God by burnt-offerings and peace-offerings God doth not give them an answere of peace and prosperous successe Hence then ô England take thy patterne of seeking God and asking Counsel of Him First doe not first resolve with thy selfe to fight and then goe aske of God not whether thou shalt fight or no but onely who shall goe up first For then thou mayst speed as they did Secondly thinke it not sufficient to powre forth teares of worldly sorrow for thy discomfiture and therupon resolve to renew the battaile for which also though they had an Answere of God for it yet it was without any Promise of good Successe But Thirdly a Generall Fast must be Proclaimed over the Land and a Solemne Day must be kept in offering up the burnt offerings of an humble and contrite heart and peace offerings of reconciliation with God through faith in Christ joyned with a thorow Reformation of thy notorious Sins and transgressions wherewith the whole Land is burthened and defiled Then then I say and not before alwayes provided the Cause of Warre be known to be just as that of the Israelites was against the Benjamites their Brethren mayst thou with a good Conscience and sure confidence in God make thy Warre But what Sins are those which thou must reforme In brief thou must ô England call in those wicked and ungodly Bookes Orders Edicts Declarations whereby the Doctrines of Grace have been suppressed the Sanctification of the Sabbath cryed down Ministers persecuted and put out of their places much innocent blood hath been shed especially of those 3 banished Close Prisoners and to Summe up all in one head-Sinne to cast out those who are the maine Instruments and movers of all these and other outrages in the Land to wit the Prelates who as the limbs of Antichrist and so Christs adversaries doe of late especially challenge their Lordly Jurisdiction from Christ alone * which notwithstanding he hath expresly forbidden as heathenish and tyrennicall and which his ‡ Apostles branded for Antichristian and the Mystery of Iniquity So as till these usurpers of Christs Throne be cast out with all their Baggage and Trumpery of their Cermonies and will-worship be sure ô England thou canst not look to prosper in any thy undertakings be they never so just for in maintaining thy Prelates thou maintainest open Warre against Christ and his Kingdome and hadst thou eyes to see it against thine own Kingdome too and the peace and prosperity thereof But it will be alledged that thy Reverend Prelats hate a Publick Fast as being Puritanicall and consequently any such Reformation as aforesaid as being all Puritanicall that their Order is most Christian and consonant to Civil Government and most agreeable with the Monarchy and the like And therefore that thou art bound to defend them yea though it be by making open Warre against all those that doe withstand their Hiearchy I● this be thy resolution ô England then know this for a certainty that thou canst not long stand seeing thy so maintaining of that Antichristian Tyranny is to wage open Warre against Iesus Christ the onely King of his Church And therfore if this be the cause and end of thy warlike preparations be sure thou shalt not prosper in why way how art thou so blind as not to se how thy prosperity must of necessity be thy ruine For as Christ saith * A Kingdome divided against it selfe cannot stand And so if the Iland which consists of two Kingdomes under one King be divided against it selfe and the one Kingdome destroy the other is it not as with the body when the right hand cuts off the left And shalt not thou ô England be hereby exposed to thy false friends and deadly enemies without who could not wish a better opportunity for the effecting of their long wished desire then to see this goodly Iland to imbrue her hands in her own bowels and blood And therefore if thou hast any such designe ô England who could who would counsel and instigate thee unto it but the Spirit of Iezebel of Rome possessing thy ●relotes who as those ‡ false Prophets bid thee to goe up against Ram●th Gilead and prosper But it wil be pretended they are Rebells whom thou wilt Warre against Wherein Rebells For casting our Christs enemies those Antichristian usurpers the Prelates Indeed thus thou didst deale with those 3 above said as Seditious Persons because they convinced the Prelates of their usurped title of Iurisdiction from Christ wherein they did not in the least point transgresse or yet so much as trench upon any of thy Laws but defended them against the Prelates And if in so doing any shal be accounted of thee to be Rebells certainly they which doe it not are neither good Christians nor good Subjects But if indeed thou wilt Warre against any such as Rebells let the Case first be tryed in a faire and Judiciall way a better then which cannot be then the present Parliament And because the Prelates are Parties let them be excluded out of the Court till the matter be deci●ed For no Reason that Parties should sit as Judges as the Prelates did in the Censuring of those former three though they excepted against them in open Court And if indeed by such a faire tryall any shal be found judicially to be Rebells against their King then make Warre against them and spare not and I could wish to be the foremost in the fight But if they onely stand to defend their ancient Rights and Liberties and those good Laws of the Land which as the Ligatures doe bind unite and fasten the Head and Body the King and his Subjects together and which both Prince and People are bound by mutuall Covenant and Sacred Oath to maintaine let the Parliament determine whether that be Rebellion or no Which till it be determined let me crave thy patience ô England in a few words and hearken to the Counsel that I shall give thee in Gods own Name and words And because the present Parliament is the Representative Body of the whole State of the Land let me first addresse my Speech to it now Assembled in both the Houses Now where Gods word saith * By wise Counsel thou shalt make thy Warre he immediately addeth And in a multitude of Councellers there is Safety And you most Noble Senate are a Multitude of Councellers whose wisdome and Councel is requisite at this time for the making of Warre or not and much more for the making of Warre against your Brethren and in the very bowells of the Land Which Warre if it be for the Prelates Hierarchy let me say as he did ‡ If Baal be a God let him plead for himselfe For otherwise● the making of such a Warre cannot be for safety and therfore I hope a multitude of such Counsellers will never give their consent much lesse their Counsel for such a