Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	believe_v	church_n	true_a	1,441	5	5.0713	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63629	A letter to the misrepresenter of papists being a vindication of that part of the Protestant preface to the Wholesome advices from the Blessed Virgin, &c. which concerns the Protestants charity to papists, and a layman's writing it : in answer to what is objected against it in the 4th chapter of the second part of the Papist misrepresented, &c. / by the same layman who translated the Wholesome advices, &c. and made the preface to them.	Taylor, James, fl. 1687-1689.	1687 (1687)	Wing T285; ESTC R39707	11,353	19

an end I fancy Sir that you or whoever was the Author of the First Part of the Papist Misrepresented c. and some others of your Church have found to your grief and shame that either of these Doctors you speak of could if they had pleas'd to have undertaken so mean a work have writ another sort of a Preface than I have done to the disadvantage of the French Popery now imitated in England Let the meanness of the performance prevail over you to believe that neither of them made it But indeed you are Injurious to them to fancy they would be guilty of such indirect dealing No No Sir the Divines of the Church of England have a better Cause they need use no Arts or Tricks no feign'd Miracles no bold Untruths no malicious Whispers and Slanders to support and defend it nor put Shams upon the World. This practice is none of theirs and if you please that may be added as a mark to prove ours a true Church And indeed I could easily persuade my self to believe that your own practice that of your Party was in your Thoughts when this Fancy entred into your Brain But in a Word and to put you out of pain about these two Doctors for I cannot blame you for dreading them I do assure you that neither of them made that Preface and once more that I who now write this Letter to you am a Lay-man and writ that Preface such as ' t is And if I could but be infallibly certain that the old Popery was alter'd in the point of Malice Revenge and seeking occasion against those who never so little oppose or hinder the designs of Rome I would give you entire satisfaction in this Particular and not only tell you my Name but where I live But because I cannot get out of my Thoughts some late Actions and that hard usage of the brave Author of Wholsome Advices c. I fear lest Old Popery may be practis'd upon me too and therefore think it but common Prudence to conceal my self For to tell you true I am not yet weary of that little Happiness I enjoy But Sir you make your Misrepresenter tell the World that I am dabling out of my Element by which one would think that after all you believ'd I am a Layman Well but how out of my Element May not a Layman tell Truth and do good to his Neighbour's Soul Is God's Spirit is all Knowledg limited to Holy Orders Because there are some Functions appropriated to Clergy-men such as Administring the Sacraments c. does it therefore follow that a Layman may neither write nor discourse of any Matters of Religion Pray Sir does that Command Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self oblige Laymen as well as Clergymen If it does and since I may edify my self why I beseech you not another And can a Man express his Charity to his Neighbour in a higher manner than in Spiritual Things But the Arguments are infinite which might be us'd in this Case And therefore I shall only ask you whether Tertullian and Origen and many other of the Ancient Fathers writ not about Religion when they were Laymen Nay more did not Pope Adrian and Pope Nicholas admit Laymen into Councils And pray what was Picus Mirandula but an Earl and meer Layman and Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellor of England But above all what was that Prince who wrote against Luther for which the Pope thought fit to bestow the Title of Defender of the Faith upon him But indeed why should it seem strange that you and your Church should find fault with Laymen's medling in Controversies of Religion especially against you when you dare totally barr Laymens reading the Holy Scriptures for which they have a Command from God Search the Scriptures and perswade them to put out their Eyes and throw away their Reason which God and Nature has given them to be their Guide through this deceitful World. And yet I dare say that if a Layman would undertake so knotty a piece of Work as to write in Defence of your Church that you would not tell him that he was d●●●ling out of his Element tho he were no better than a profligate Poet. I pass over your unhandsom Language and 't is below me to return it But I cannot but stand amaz'd to find a Member of the Church of Rome and a maintainer of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation make his Misrepresenter say That the Protestant Teachers know the People they have to deal with that their discerning Faculties are stupified that they 'l pass over fifty Contradictions without once stumbling and that there 's no fear of enquiring How can this be No Sir the Teachers of the Church of England are not guilty of this Tyranny We are Members of a Church that invites all her Children to the highest attainment of Knowledg and teaches them that a reasonable Service is the most acceptable to God and imposes nothing upon them that either destroys or contradicts their Reason and Senses that not only allows her Children to read the Holy Scriptures but beseeches them to do it provided they do it with a modest dependence on their lawful Teachers for the sense of some Texts which may not be so clear to Persons who are unacquainted with the Proprieties of the Languages in which the Holy Scriptures were writ and the Customs and Manners of the People and Countries where they were pen'd In a word the Church of England allows a private Liberty of examining all things she propounds and does not expect that Men should follow her blindfold She requires indeed Obedience in those few Points which are absolutely necessary to Salvation because they are so plain that it is impossible for an honest and sound Mind to question them But for things of an indifferent Nature she only desires that for the sake of Peace and Vnity Order and Decency that her Children would not dispute about them In line she is very sure that they and they only are her true Children her most sincere Members who are the most obedient to Scripture and most ready to yield to the Evidence of them and Reason and Sense And thus Sir I have endeavour'd to restore Peace to your Mind by shewing that Protestants are not at all uncharitable but that Papists are and that I am a Layman and yet may meddle in Divinity and not be dabling out of my Element And now I hope you 'l be no longer in a fright of those two Doctors you hinted for assure your self that unless there be occasion to defend a poor Layman of their Church as far as the Truth and the Religion of it are concern'd for you may possibly hear from me upon some other Point these two Doctors are better employ'd than to trouble themselves with you But if against this plain Proof that the Papists are the only uncharitable Persons you will yet rub your Forehead and make Protestants as bad What Remedy Truth