Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	apostle_n	bishop_n	church_n	1,754	5	4.4354	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51154	An apology for the clergy of Scotland chiefly oppos'd to the censures, calumnies, and accusations of a late Presbyterian vindicator, in a letter to a friend : wherein his vanity, partiality and sophistry are modestly reproved, and the legal establishment of episcopacy in that kingdom, from the beginning of the Reformation, is made evident from history and the records of Parliament : together with a postscript, relating to a scandalous pamphlet intituled, An answer to The Scotch Presbyterian eloquence.	Monro, Alexander, d. 1715?	1693 (1693)	Wing M2437; ESTC R20155	87,009	107

on the other hand If any of them be guilty to upbraid them with their faults is not the way to reform them for of all Advices those that are given to reform the Clergy should be managed most nicely and tenderly And it is to be feared that the Vindicator and his Associates are very glad when they can discover the trippings of their Adversaries If any of the Clergy be guilty of such things as are clamorously alledged by Presbyterians it is no Argument against the common Cause of the Catholick Church and the Apostolical Succession of that Hierareby of Bishop Presbyter and Deacon continued from the days of the Apostles until now And therefore he may if he will as is threatned employ the people in the West to make and gather stories to the disadvantage of the Episcopal Clergy and it is an easie thing to swell that Volumn into a prodigious Bulk if their ignorant and implacable Enemies may be believed it is not possible for them not to accuse But I think the Vindicator himself is not of so profligate a Conscience as to give Ear to such malicious Reports We have had late Instances of the Presbyterian activity against the Reputation of the Clergy no man could escape a Libel that enjoyed a comfortable Benefice Nothing could have made the Presbyterians more contemptible than this treacherous and sneaking method of Libelling when it was visible to all men that those scurrilous Papers were intended for no more than to ruin and disgrace the most innocent and deserving men And it is very odd that they could venture to blindfold the Nation by this bassled and hypocritical Sham and how comes it that the Clergy in the West are represented as Criminals when they dare not attack the Clergy in the North The reason is obvious the People in the West date their Conversion from the time that they forbear to hear the Curates and they think themselves obliged by all their ties and solemn Covenants to ruin and disparage those limbs of Antichrist But the People in the North can discover no such beauty in their Presbyterian Discipline they love and honour their own Ministers they hear them Preach the Articles of Christian Faith and true and solid Morals and so rough are those Infidels in the North that they never thought Sniveling necessary to make a great Saint They love a plain and unaffected Stile and they cannot be persuaded but that the Oracles of God may be Preached without affectation and yet with all requisite Gravity and Recollection If there be so many Libels gathered by Presbyterians it may provoke their Enemies to recriminate and if the Vindicator thinks that such scurrilous writings can serve the common cause of Religion I wish him more wisdom and sobriety I condemn all such methods in all Parties and if the thing were allowable we could tell him that many of his Associates in the Ministry are very scandalous some of them Adulterers some Fornicators some Blasphemers some whole Presbyterian Families Incestuous Sed praestat motos componere fluctus If I rejoyced in this Recrimination I were not a good Christian But it is necessary to put those Proud and Supercillous men in mind that they are but ordinary Mortals encompassed about with the same Infirmities with other men and that they should consult the Scriptures and the Fathers for Arguments rather than the Cameronian Zealots in the Western Shires and if they beat the Clergy at those Weapons they deserve to be chastised and for a conclusion to this Observation I must tell you that I know not a more unblamable Company of men upon Earth than the Episcopal Clergy of Scotland Nor do I know any five of them in the whole Nation who could not undergo the severest Examinations used in the Christian Church Preparatory to Ordination I wish that they may make a Christian use of their present Tryals and give the world a proof of that greatness of soul that qualifies men for the Priesthood that all round about them may be convinced that he that is in them is greater than he that is in the World Seneca tells us that to do good even when it is attended with infamy is noble and heroick and a greater than Seneca tells us that we must go thorough good report and bad report God will clear our Innocence as the Sun in his Meridian Elevation and I hope to the Conviction of our Enemies that in the simplicity of our souls we designed the Reformation of sinners and that we look upon our selves as Dedicated to the immediate Service of God and the sooner we retire into our own Consciences and discover the secret Springs of our present Calamity the sooner will our heavenly Father remove the marks of his Indignation There is no Argument so proper to convince the Ignorance of foolish men as by well doing and though we should not be so succesful in gaining Proselites in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation yet we fortifie the Peace and Tranqulllity of our Consciences we strengthen our selves against those things that are most terrible to Flesh and Blood we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of Glory in the midst of all Calamities and Reproaches that are cast upon us And let not them that are yet untouched think that their Brethren upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell are greater sinners than their Neighbors I leave this and I go forward to another Topick by which he endeavours to vindicate the Presbyterians and it is this that the Clergy of the Church of Scotland did press the Consciences of the Presbyterians and that the People could not own them as their Ministers because they were obtruded upon them and not invited by Popular Elections But the Vindicator should consider that if his Argument be turn'd against his Party in the North of Scotland it may be of dangerous Consequence to the growth of Presbytery For the bresbyterians there are not likely to carry their Elections by plurality of Votes but does not he remember that severals of the Remonstrator Presbyterians have been inducted to their Churches by some Troops of English Horse in the time of the late Civil Wars yet he does not think but that the People owed all Deference and Spiritual Obedience to them and if a Pastoral Relation may be founded between a Minister and the People by Cromwells Troopers why not by King Charles the Second's Dragoons But does not the Vindicator remember that some have been obtruded on the old College of Aberdeen without the Regular and Collegiate Election by the same very force that had planted some Remonstrator Ministers and that without any Tryal or Examination when their more deserving Predecessors were most Tyrannically removed But not to trifle with the Vindicator The method of admitting Ministers in the Church of Scotland under the Episcopal Constitution is the most just and the most unexceptionable that can be devised For when the Candidate for any Ecclesiastical

gathering true Materials Again The Vindicator tells us that they do not think K. William an Idolater though he Communicate with the Church of England yet when some of his Party mounts the Desk and declaims their Maccaronicks they positively conclude that the Church of England is idolatrous Again he does not allow that the Clergy who Address'd the Commission of the General Assembly had any measure of wit yet their Contrivances were founded on deep Consults But let me tell the Vindicator that no man or Society of men has the Monopoly of Prudence the most cautious steps may be sometimes frustrated and the wisest men may sometimes widely mistake their measure and the Hearts of all Men as well as the Hearts of Kings and Princes are in the hands of God and their motions directed by his Providence And after all let me tell the Vindicator once more that that little Contrivance and Formula of an Address blew up their pretended Assembly and let me tell him more yet tho I pretend to no acquaintance in Political things that it is very probable that those very Laws by which the Ringleaders of Presbytery thought to secure their Tyranny for ever will occasion its fall and ruin though they endeavour to support it by the Pens and Lungs of all its Associates I could name many other Inconsistencies I have no room for them every other Line is stuffed with such mean and scurrilous Railings that it is nauseous to repeat them yet I cannot but take notice of his Vanity He treats his Adversaries with scorn and contempt The Author of the History of the General Assembly he treats as a Sciolist and as a Momus and he is enraged that he should presume to write that one of the Presbyterian Doctors could not speak Latine Such an Affront was not to be endured by a man that had signalized himself so much in Controversial Feats and therefore I advise you when you meddle with the Presbyterions to make your Approaches with all possible Caution and Reverence A Presbyterian had rather be accused of Adultery Sodomy or Incest than to be thought Ignorant and this is the reason why the Author of that History is lash'd with all the severities of Satyr and the Vindicator would have forgiven him any thing rather than the least Insinuation of being ignorant Alas this was not to be be endured that one of their Leaders and who had made a remarkable Figure should be thus run down and exposed to laughter For though the Presbyterians look very demure and grave you mistake them if you think them Stoicks If you venture to say any thing that may rob them of that pleasant Imagination of their own Grandeur that lovely idea that they have of themselves and their extraordinary performances But I must tell you what occasioned his heavy displeasure against the Author of the History of the General Assembly That Author gives one Instance why he thought Mr. Gilbert Rule did not understand throughly the things that he wrote of because when he Cites the Epistle of St. Jerom to Evagrius and from thence Cites the Sentence you see in the Margine he must needs force the word ordinatio in that Epistle to signifie the Ordering of the Meetings This Exposition the Author of that History such an Infidel he is thinks a little Paradoxical if not downright Ignorance because no Ecclesiastical Writer in that or any former Age understood any such thing by that word so placed as it is in that Epistle besides there 's no mention of any meeting near that word that determin it to that signification And since this Exposition was so very odd the Author of that History did treat it and the Inventer of it very familiarly Besides others do think that it this Exposition be received it will oblige us to understand St. Jerom in many places in a Sense contrary to the Opinion of all former Ages Thus I find St. Jerom informs us that such and such a man was Ordinatus ab Apostolis Episcopus of such a place therefore the meaning must be that such a man was appointed to meet the Apostle at such a place However the Vindicator treats him as a Sciolist a Momus a poor sequacious Animal that follows such as went before him But if he had been acquainted with the penetrating Genius of Mr. Rule and others he had no doubt understood the Fathers better It is very difficult to guess what to impute this extravagant Fancy to he thought it dangerous to allow that Ordinatio did signifie the Imposition of Hands at least he wished such a power might not be granted to a Bishop and therefore he will have Ordinatio in that Epistle of St. Jerom to Evagrius to signifie the ordering of something though that thing be not named in St. Jreom and if it signifies the ordering of something as the Vindicator profoundly Reasons why not the ordering of a Meeting And if it was the ordering of a Meeting Why not the ordering of an Ecclesiastical Meeting Yet all this time it is not determined whether this ordering of the Meeting be an Authoritative appointing of the time when they should meet and what they should treat of or only presiding as Moderator amongst them when the Collective body themselves appointed the meeting Because I say this is left uncertain perhaps the Vindicator will judge it most convenient to adhere to the last If he had said that Ordinatio signified the ordering of a Dromedary it had been more to his purpose for certainly the ordering of such an Animal made not so great a distinction between a Bishop and Presbyter as the ordering of Ecclesiastical Meetings How contrary such a fancy is to the received exposition of that word will best appear when we consider other places in the works of S. Jerom where the word Ordinare is made use of and let us suppose that the word must be interpreted according to the new Critick Thus we find St. Jerom Comment 1. Epist ad Timothe Cap. 3. ab initio Primum laicos instituit de quibus optimi quique in facordotium eliguntur sic dicit quales debeant ordinari Then the meaning must be according to this late discovery that the Apostle declared such as were fit to be appointed to meet Again S. Jerom in his Comment on the Epist to Titus in those words For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou mightest ordain He hath these words Quae desunt recto tenore corrige tunc demum presbyteros poteris ordinare cum omnes in Ecclesia fuerint recti when all have been blameless in the Church then thou mayst appoint Presbyters to meet And again in his Catalogue Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum speaking of S. James the Brother of our Lord Jacobus qui appellatur frater Domini cognomento justus Post Passionem Domini statim ab Apostolis Hierosolymorum Episcopus ordinatus the meaning must be that he was appointed by the