Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	act_n	law_n	sin_n	1,487	5	5.2539	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37428	An enquiry into the occasional conformity of dissenters in cases of preferment with a preface to the lord mayor, occasioned by his carrying the sword to a conventicle.	Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.	1698 (1698)	Wing D835; ESTC R36086	13,515	16

Sinful Act. For if he is satisfied he does well in Conforming now why did he not before There is but one Answer for that which is He is otherwise convinced to which I reply if that were true he would then as a Convert continue in this New Communion but 't is evident the same Persons return immediately to the former Profession as Dissenters and they can have no such Excuse unless it be that they were convinc'd and reconvinc'd and then convinc'd again Some have the Folly to argue against the Law it self as a most Notorious Imposition upon the Consciences of Men by making the Sacred Institutions of Christ a Drudge to Secular Interest and a Cause of Mens Sins by leading them into Temptation I could say enough to vindicate that part tho I am no more reconcil'd to that Law than other Men but 't is remote to our Argument 'T is an Act of Parliament and what is so is of every Man 's own doing and therefore 't is just every one shou'd comply with the Terms or suffer the Penalty but here is no Penalty if no Crime if no Preferments are sought no Honours accepted there is no Crime if Self-denial was as practicable as Self-advancement here is no need of the Crime So that they who do this seek the Crime that is the first Sin then Mortgage their Consciences to avoid the Penalty and so add one Sin to another But we are told by some 't is not against their Consciences they hope both Parties are Good Christians there are Differences between them which they don't understand nor meddle with and their Consciences are very well satisfied to Communicate with either I would ask such if their Consciences would serve to Communicate with the Church why did they Separate For Communicating with the Dissenter is not an Occasional or Casual Thing but an open declar'd breaking off from the Church Establisht Now no Man can be said to separate from and join to a thing at the same time if your Conscience is satisfied in Joyning it cannot be satisfied in Separating unless you can suppose your Conscience to be satisfied and dissatisfied both together If you have a Conscience of any Religion at all it must be of some Religion or other if of this it cannot be of that if of that it cannot be of this To Dissent and Approve are different Acts and can never be fixt upon the same Object at the same time as for a Man Passively Religious that can Communicate any where that Man may from the same Principle and with far less guilt Communicate no where for such a Man in down-right English has prostituted the little Religion he had if ever he had any to his Interest and may be Turk Jew Papist or any thing The latter part of the Charge leads me to consider another Point which relates to the Assemblies of the Dissenters who admit and by consequence approve this way of proceeding I do not pretend to examine by what Methods such particular Churches do proceed And I would be as tender as possible in making Reflections I wish they would be as Charitable in censuring this Reproof I do think with Submission 't is impossible to prove that any Person whose Case the foregoing Paragraph reaches can be receiv'd again into Church-Communion in a Dissenting Assembly upon any other Terms than as a Penitent I have heard of some who have been said to have leave from their Ministers for this Matter if so they have assum'd some Dispensing Authority which I believe does not appertain to the Ministerial Function nor is not contain'd in the Mission of our Saviour But I do not affirm That any such thing has been really allow'd As to the Relation of Churches and the Members thereof one to another as the Dissenters now Establish them I am sure the allowance of any Member in a Promiscuous Communion with the Church of England and the Dissenter at the same time is not pretended to be allow'd nor is it consistent with it self 'T is Preposterous and Excentrick and is Destructive of the very Foundation of the Dissenters Principles as is already noted concerning Schisms in the Church In this Case Charity can heal nothing nor help nothing 't is of absolute necessity that one Man be but of one side at one and the same time Either the Conformist will marr the Dissenter or the Dissenter will marr the Conformist For if I shall be admitted into the Communion of the Dissenter and of the Church together then the Dissenter must have some other Reason for being a Dissenter than Purity of Worship Methinks Men should seem what they are if a Man Dissent from the Church let him do so and his Principle being well-grounded for such Dissent let him hold it if not well-grounded let him leave it if he cannot suffer one way let him suffer another and why should we not be as honest to God as our Country The Motives to serve our Country are strong but there are ways to do it without such a Violation of all our Principles and Profession if not trust God's Providence with the Issue who never wants Agents to preserve and deliver his People when his time is at hand and you can have small hope to expect that the Office and Trust you shall Execute shall receive any Assistance from his Providence when the first Step into it is made by offering the greatest Affront to his Honour and committing the vilest Act of Perfidy in the World But if the gay Prospect of a Great Place tempt any Person beyond the Power that God's Grace is pleas'd to Assist him with in that way let him abide and not be re-admitted because of his Gold Ring and Fine Apparel without a Penitent Acknowledgment The Dissenters in England can never pretend to be Dissenters upon the mere Principle of Purity of Worship as I have related in the beginning of this Discourse if such shall be receiv'd as blameless into their Communion who have deserted them upon the occasion of Preferment and have made the Sacred Institutions of Christ Jesus become Pimps to their Secular Interest and then wipe their Mouths and sit down in the Church and say They have done no Evil. 'T is also an Intolerable Affront to the Church of England reflecting upon its Doctrine as well as Practice To make use of the Church for a Cover to sence them against the Laws at the same time continuing to disown its Communion as a thing not fit to be continued in And yet the Church of England is in the right to receive such of the Dissenters as shall come to them without the Ceremony of Recognition because it is agreeable to the Notion of a National Church which they profess to be But Dissenters are bound to justify their Separation from them or else their whole Constitution falls to the Ground Now how a Separation and a Conformity are Consistent is to me an Inexplicable Riddle I question not here the

National Church I shall only observe That the Reasons for the present Dissenters Separation from the Establisht Church are said to be exactly the same they were then and the present Dissenters are the Successors of those first as the present Conformists are the Successors of the first Reformers under King Edward the 6th and Queen Elizabeth I must acknowledge that it fares with the Church of England and with the Dissenters both as it has always far'd with Christ's Church in the whole World That while Supprest and Persecuted their Professors were few and their Profession more severe but when a Religion comes to be the Mode of the Country so many painted Hypocrites get into the Church who are not by their Voices to be distinguish'd that Guile is not to be seen till it arrive to Apostacy The whole Ecclesiastical History from the first Century of the Christian Church is full of Instances to confirm this That the Prosperity of the Church of Christ has been more fatal to it than all the Persecution of its Enemies I am now brought down to the present Time when the Dissenting Protestant is sheltered by the laws and protected from the Violence which he suffered in the Late Reigns under the Arbitrary Commands of such State-Ministers who strove to dash the whole Protestant Interest to pieces by its own weight and nothing is more apparent to those who are any thing acquainted with the late Management of Affairs in this Land than that the Court used both Parties alternately as Policy and occasion directed to Suppress and Destroy one another that the whole House which being so divided cou'd not stand might at last fall of it self But our Eyes are at last open'd and the Name of Protestant is now the common Title of an Englishman and the Church of England extends her Protection to the Tender Consciences of her Weaker Brethren knowing that all may be Christians tho' not alike inform'd and the Dissenter extends his Charity to the Church of England believing that in his due time God shall reveal even this unto them If this is not I wish this were the Temper of both Parties and I am sure it is already the Temper of some of each Side and those few are of the Wisest most Pious and most Judicious But while Frailty and Infirmity is an Essential to Humanity and Pride and Hypocrisy are the two regnant Vices of the Church this Good Spirit cannot be Universal and we do not expect it But there is a sort of Truth which all men owe to the Principles they profess and generally speaking all men pay it a Turk is a Turk zealously and entirely an Idolater is an Idolater and will serve the Devil to a tittle None but Protestants halt between God and Baal Christians of an Amphibious Nature that have such Preposterous Consciences that can believe one Way of Worship to be right and yet serve God another way themselves This is a strange thing in Israel The whole History of Religions in the World do not shew such a Case 'T is like a Ship with her Sails hal'd some back and some full 'T is like a Workman that builds with one Hand and pulls down with t'other 'T is like a Fisherman that catches Fish with one hand and throws them into the Sea with another 'T is like every thing that signifies nothing To say a man can be of two Religions is a Contradiction unless there be two Gods to worship or he has two Souls to save Religion is the Sacred Profession of the Name of God serving him believing in him expecting from him and like the God it refers to 't is in one and the same Object one and the same thing perfectly indivisible and inseparable there is in it no Neuter Gender no Ambigous Article God or Baal Mediums are impossible As to the different Modes and Ways which are the Circumstantials of this sacred thing I Call Religion I won't say but that as Ships take different Courses at Sea yet to the best of their Skill keeping to the direct Rules of Navigating by the Compass they may arrive at the same Port so Christians taking different Methods in the serving this God yet going to the best of their Judgments by the direct Rules of the Scripture may arrive at the same Heaven but this is nothing at all to the Case for no Ship would arrive at any Port that sailed two ways together if that were possible nor no Man can serve One God and at the same time hold two Opinions There is but one Best and he that gives God two Bests gives him the Best and the Worst and one spoils t'other till both are good for nothing I have said already that both the Church of England and the Dissenter suffer in their Reputation for the mixt Multitude of their Members which is occasion'd by their present Prosperity If a Third Party were to Tyrannize over them both we should see then who were Professors and who were Confessors but now it cannot be Wherefore I think 't were well to put both Sides in mind of one thing which they are bound mutually to observe and that is That the Personal Miscarriages of any particular Person or Member is not really any Reflection upon the Religion they prosess nor ought not to be so accounted unless it be where such Miscarriages are the direct Dictates of the Doctrines they Teach and thus I would be understood in the present Case Wherefore I shall give my Essay as to what I understand a Real Dissenting Protestant is or ought to be He who Dissents from an Establish'd Church on any account but from a real Principle of Conscience is a Politick not a Religious Dissenter To explain my self He who Dissents from any other Reasons but such as these That he sirmly believes the said Established Church is not of the purest Institution but that he can really serve God more agreeable to his Will and that accordingly 't is his Duty to do it so and no otherwise Nay he that cannot Dye or at least desire to do so rather than Conform ought to Conform Schism from the Church of Christ is doubtless a great Sin and if I can avoid it I ought to avoid it but if not the Cause of that Sin carries the Guilt with it But if I shall thus Dissent and yet at the same time Conform by Conforming I deny my Dissent being lawful or by my Dissenting I damn my Conforming as sinful Nothing can be lawful and unlawful at the same time if it be not lawful for me to Dissent I ought to Conform but if it be unlawful for me to Conform I must Dissent several Opinions may at the same time consist in a Country in a City in a Family but not in one entire Person that is impossible To come to the point there are Dissenters who have separated from the Church of England and join'd in Communion with Dissenting Churches or Congregations They have appear'd Zealous