Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	attend_v	zeal_n	zealous_a	23	3	8.6885	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48963	Logikē latreia the reasonablenesse of divine service : or non-conformity to common-prayer, proved not conformable to common reason : in answer to the contrary pretensions of H. D. in a late discourse concerning the interest of words in prayer and liturgies / by Ireneus Freeman ...	Freeman, Ireneus.	1661 (1661)	Wing L2841; ESTC R1576	82,822	110

Remembrancers The same may be said of the usual names of the moneths and dayes of the week which do include the names of heathenish Gods and Goddesses which some have taken much pains to shew and presse for the credit of Mr. Jesse's Almanack But his Almanack would be needlesse except these things were first pressed by such tinkerly Reformers who make work that so they may mend it For who thinks of Venus when he mentions Friday though Frea signifie the same And who thinks of keeping a Feast to Saturn when he celebrates the Nativity of our Saviour or of honouring Flora in a May pole None I dare say or but very few excepting such as have been endroctrinated by the said Reformers No more then a man means to swear by Hercules when he saith or writeth Mehercule which I am sure I have met with in Theological discourses made by Authors never suspected of any good inclination to Popery or other Idolatry In like manner who thinks of the Lady of Loretto or other Popish Idols in reading of the Liturgy Only the discourse I oppose is the direct way to effect that which they pretend to prevent I have argued all this while upon the Authors supposition That the worship of the Church of Rome in the whole complex is idolatrous But they might more properly say that a bushel filled half with wheat and half with rye is a bushel of wheat or that a Sermon is nonsentical in the whole complex if some few phrases of it be non-sense or that a Translation is erroneous in the whole complex if there be some few Errata's in it Whosoever faith a Blackamore is white ih the whole complex according to my Criticks tels a lye though he be white in his teeth I might also add that the Papists in the grossest part of their idolatry in adoration of the bread are justified by a Principle which the Non-conformists or most of them do maintain and their idolatry is but the lawful emprovement of this Principle viz. That Reason is not to judge what points are to be received as articles of faith and what not For this principle being supposed there is no warrant to interpret those words figuratively This is my body since all the warrant which is pretended is that the literal sense is repugnant to Reason which pronounceth it absolutely impossible that one body should be in two places at once But according to this Hypothesis of the exclusion of reason from the judgement seat the Papist might reply Indeed my reason tels me that it is impossible but the Scripture saith This is my body and therefore I ought not to mince the words at the command of reason which hath nothing to do in matters of faith Indeed the Scripture saith the Body of Christ is in heaven but I believe it is on earth too at the Eucharist Nothing but Reason gain-sayes and she hath nothing to do to judge in the case What can a man that goes on this Principle reply to the so much condemned Idolater Out of his own mouth he is confuted He laid down the doctrine and the other makes the natural and genuine use Those therefore which hold this principle cannot judge the action of the Papists in adoring the Bread to be idolatrous without self-contradiction and if they will act according to their light this second Reason signifies nothing to them though it may to others I cannot conclude my notes on their second Reason without reflecting upon another extracted from the same Topick and by what they have said upon this Reason rendered more creditable to the unwary and half observing Reader For they have sprinkled in several pages of their book many shrewd hints as if the Liturgy ushered in the Masse and conformity were a step toward Popery As page 67. We know that those Ministers and people who are most zealous against Popery are most averse to this Liturgy But a zeal for any cause except it be bridled by discretion and attended with an equal pace of strength is not the way to protect it but to betray it We saw lately that the States-men which were most zealous for the good old Cause lost it and the King had not better friends then his most implacable enemies Fury is as bad in a Champion as torpour it is an even temperature of wisdom and valour which doth the execution A sober Protestant though he rageth lesse shall prevail more on a Papist then a mad Fanatick The greatest part of the zeal against Popery which is found among the Non-conformists is like that of one frantick who wounds himself while he would strike his foe They are mad against Popery but they cannot tell why they cannot confute it without condemning themselves as I could prove in many Instances This unguided zeal will be sure to run far enough from Popery and so runs into it as he that sails round the Globe the further he goes after he is half way the nearer he approacheth to the place from whence he set out Thus the Quakers a considerable part of the Non-conformists rayled at Popery till they began to be taken for Jesuites or their disciples I have heard of several Papists that have turned Protestants by the reasonings of men zealous for the Liturgy But I professe unfainedly I never heard of one that of late years was won by any Non-conformist excepting by Mr. Baxter And I believe he would have been as unsuccessful as others but that he goes upon more moderate principles Me thinks the example of Doctor Cosens now Bishop of Durham once most suspected of Popery for his zeal for the Liturgy and yet exercising a no lesse couragious then considerate zeal against Popery in the time of his exile methinks I say this example alone were sufficient not only to stop the mouth of calumny in this particular but to non-plus jealousie it self I confesse in some things the Conformists come nearer to the Papists then others but it is as Souldiers make their approaches to the enemy to fight with him and are therefore many times thought to fall away but when they return with their spoils captives and Trophees none is so hard-faced as to maintain the suspition Mr. Baxter himself it is known hath not only been suspected but verily believed to be a Papist and that by some Rabbi's meerly for his conceding some Positions to the Papists which no reasonable and just man can deny them whereby he hath done more to the shaking of the very foundations of the Papal Sea then all the Non-conformists that ever mannaged the Controversie which I ever heard of But I have so much to say upon this subject that it would require a Book by it self Doctor Sanderson in both his Prefaces to his Sermons hath shewed how much service is done to the Pope by the Non-conformists in many particulars where the Reader may be satisfied concerning the falsenesse of that which they affirm page 109. That there is nothing of more

action which is otherwise lawful but giveth offence I do the action and yet I break not the Apostles precept because it is not such an offence as he means though it go under the same general name as the Act of the Sheriff and of the private man doe For Saint Paul means as the Authors Confesse an offence taken from an action which in other respects and antecedently to the offence I might do or not do But in this case my action is no such it is not an action which I might either do or leave undone antecedently to the offence but I was bound in conscience to do it if no offence had been taken and that by the Command of God requiring obedience to the Magistrate and therefore the duty being necessary antecedently to the offence in order of nature yea and in order of time too the falling out of the offence cannot warrant the omission of it much lesse oblige to the said omission SECT IV. Conformity is not in its own Nature so scandalous as Difformity both in provoking Distast and in laying stumbling-blocks in the way of the weak The Ministers Reasons make as much against the Oath of Allegiance as the Common-prayer It is absurd to offend the Magistrate that they may avoid the offence of private men Their Reply to this is but a meer begging of the Question and betraying their cause IN the next place they describe the scandal which they say would be taken at their reading of the Common-Prayer and make it consist in two particulars 1. That people would scorn and vilifie them and withdraw themselves from communion with them And 2. That they would be encouraged by the examples of these Ministers to do the like although not convinced of the lawfulnesse of so doing and so sin against their own consciences But I reply to them thus As for the first part of the scandal supposing that you are satisfied of the lawfulnesse of using the Common-prayer and have nothing to say against it but the scandal as the supposition is made by your selves upon this Argument I say supposing your selves thus satisfied then the people have more cause to vilifie you and withdraw themselves from your communion on the other hand for disobeying those to whom God hath commanded you to submit your selves This hath evidently more appearance of evil in it then the other I mean disobedience hath much more appearance of evil in it then obedience and consequently is much more scandalous in its natural tendency and more apt to give offence of this first kind that is to procure a disrepute and contempt among men who stand not on their heads and have not their Opticks inverted May be men will take a pretence from your conformity to call you Time-servers Men pleasers and the like But they may much more reasonably take an occasion from your Non-conformity supposing your selves are satisfied of the lawfulnesse of conformity were it not for the scorn which attends it to accuse you of a far greater sin which the Scripture parallels with that of Witchcraft If therefore you stick on your credit you should rather fear a greater reproach to which you give not only a greater pretext but also a real cause then a lesse reproach to which you yield a lesse pretence and no real cause at all For though people at least those whose votes you most regard are more apt to vilifie where there is lesse cause then where there is more yet you ought more to fear the giving cause of reproach then to be reproached And besides who knows how soon their minds may be turned For we see how men alter in their opinions about Religion and then may be they will reproach you for omitting of that which now they would reproach you for doing And as for the second part of the scandal you may by your example as much encourage some to sin against their consciences by not using of the Common Prayer as by using it For why may they not be as well-emboldned to Non conformity with a doubting conscience by your example as you think others will be encouraged to Conformity by the same example In case they be you lead them into a far greater sin For to conform purely in imitation of you is their sin only because they do it with a doubting conscience But the contrary is a sin without any respect to the said doubts If it be said that there are none or but a few of such Persons whom these Ministers ought to regard that scruple the Lawfulnesse of Non-conformity and therefore that there is no danger they should be led into sin that way I answer that the Peoples Non-conformity is a sin whether they do it doubtingly or no and the Ministers practice doth confirm them in this sin and hinder them from doubting of it that so they might leave it Yea though the People think it lawful to disobey the Act for the Common Prayer yet they are very wild indeed if they think without any scruple that they may violate other Acts But now seeing their Ministers to break one act as well as themselves they will the more easily be carried on in their Error till they come to think they may break others also And how the contempt of Laws hath proceeded by degrees from one to another till the most fundamental Laws were overturned we have seen by late and lamentable experience And it is no wonder For the very same Arguments which are brought against the use of Common Prayer do serve as much against the taking of the Oath of Allegiance For a Form of words in Prayer is there imposed since an oath is an invocation of God and so are significative ceremonies which the first Argument of this book which I oppose pronounceth unlawful Again such words actions and gestures are there used in divine worship for such is an oath which were used by Idolaters and this is pronounced unlawful by their second Argument And lastly to take the Oath of Allegiance is scandalous and offensive to many of the weak Brethren which are offended at the Common Prayer and therefore it ought not to be taken if the third Reason was of any force which is under my present examen And I cannot let this passe without putting this question Should a man refuse to take the Oath of Allegiance when required thereto because others are offended at it I hope the Authors will allow such an offence how many or how good soever the Persons are that are offended to be inconsiderable And yet it cannot be denied that the thing is indifferent in it self and only made necessary by humane Laws For till the Law was made no man was bound to take that Oath Therefore since humane Laws have force in this case to make that action lawful which many are offended with they must needs have the like force in the case of the common Prayer supposing it to be indifferent save only for the scandal which the Authors