Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	call_v	scripture_n	word_n	1,394	5	4.1742	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40710	The grand case of the present ministry whether they may lawfully declare and subscribe, as by the late Act of vniformity is required and the several cases, thence arising (more especially about the Covenant) are clearly stated and faithfully resolved / by the same indifferent hand ; with an addition to his former Cases of conscience, hereunto subjoyned.	Fullwood, Francis, d. 1693.	1662 (1662)	Wing F2505; ESTC R21218	59,550	206

THE Grand Case Of the present MINISTRY WHETHER They may lawfully Declare and Subscribe as by the late Act of VNIFORMITY is required AND The several Cases thence arising more especially about the COVENANT are clearly Stated and Faithfully Resolved By the same Indifferent Hand With an Addition to his former CASES of CONSCIENCE hereunto Subjoyned Love worketh no ill to his Neighbour therefore Love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13. London Printed by J. Macock for T. Dring and are to be sold at the George in Fleet-street and by M. Mitchel at the first Shop in Westminster-Hall 1662. THE PREFACE TO My Dissenting Brethren 1. A Man may be Felo de se by destroying himself by our Law and Fur de se by depriving and Stealing himself away from him to whom his Service is due by the Imperial Law and proditor de Se by the Law of Nature if he descend from the Dignity of Humanity and submit to the Danger which he might avoid These are words of the very Learned Doctor Donn against the Jesuitical ambition to suffer and with all my heart I wish they were not in all particulars too too pertinent to our present Case 2. For an Opinion that we are our own Lords and may dispose of our selves for the glory of God as we please precipitates not only Jesuites but the zealous of all professions to forsake themselves and to quit their Duties with a strange prodigality of their Lives and Fortunes 3. But it is verily a great Mistake for we are not our Own our Persons our Parts our Estates and Capacities they are Gods the Kings the Churches and our Wives and Friends and to all of these in a several respect and proportion we are justly accountable for them 4. It was a Monstrous kind of wantonness in those Women Gellius speaks of that so long plaied with their own Lives till they had brought it up for a fashion to kill themselves 5. And yet it should seem that it is even Natural for men of Stomack to value a Name above Life for the very Heather tempted with honour and vain-glory and sometimes with ease and a desire to be freed from present Inconveniences how familiarly did they kill themselves 6. Whereupon it is observed Arist Ethic. lib. 3. 6. 7. that such as laboured for publique preservation did oppose themselves to this strange Corruption by endeavouring to Convince the World that there is nothing more base and cowardly then to destroy ones Self 7. The Emperours also in their Laws and Constitutions had Remedies against it not only by Forfeitures but Infamy it self to remove if possible the Temptation of glory 8. Yea as if the Self-denial of Christianity were too weak to encounter it we read of a Law in the Earldom of Flaunders to the same purpose in which this destroying of ones self is counted with Treason Heresie and Sedition and do not our own Laws Reckon it not onely Mans-slaughter but Murther yea as a thing hardly standing with the truth of our Profession as Christians the Canons of the Church are set against it denying such persons Christian Burial 9. Amongst Christians Bellarmine by way of reproach indeed to his Adversaries hath this Gradation in his Observation wherein he placeth the worst first To Suffer saith he the Anabaptists are forwardest the Calvinists next and the Lutherans very slack And if it may be no offence to my Brethren we may easily note that with us the Quaker is forwardest the Anabaptist next the Independent next and the Presbyterian last no disparagement to him though all too forward in exposing themselves to needless sufferings 10. And now my Brethren if this Witness be true and the premises cannot be denied let us begin to think with our selves what it is that doth Warrant and justifie Sufferings and constitute Martyrdom 11. Certainly if propenseness to suffer makes the Martyr the Anabaptist the Quaker yea the Jesuite and the Heathen the Lunatick and the Madman even such as have neither Grace nor Reason are far before you 12. We must conclude that nothing can prefer the Sufferings of one Way or Party be it the Soberest in the World to an higher Estimation or Reward then another or indeed secure it from the offence of God our Neighbour and Self-Murther but the Justnesse of the Cause 13. Yet if the Cause be Just except the Intention be right too we fail of Martyrdome it is not the falling with a beloved party the satisfying the humour of a multitude the preserving a Name with Male-Contents the answering our own Idea of Conveniency much lesse a being revenged upon a Government we hate that makes a Martyr 'T is neither the Intention without the Cause nor the Cause without the Intention shall win and wear this Crown Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor yea though I give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth me nothing 14. Again Admit the Cause and the Intention both were right yet there is another way to frustrate the hopes and lose the Reward of Martyrdome for there must be a fit occasion too Necessitating the Sufferings which God approves A Learned Man against that Jesuiticall fury of daring the Magistrate assures us that the Right Martyrdome perisheth upon this ground among others that he which refuseth to defend his life by a lawful act and entertaines not those overtures of Escape which God presents him destroy's himself 15. There is a Golden Mean worth a Golden Mine fitly illustrated by the Law of the Roman Army Jus Legionis facile non sequi non fugere Neither to pursue persecution with a Neglect of our Safety or duty nor to run away from it with apparent hazard of Gods glory 16. Indeed our Supream Lord sometimes calls for our Goods our Liberties and our Lives in witness to his truth yet though he allows our Affection to himself a channel to Run in even to death when he requires he by no meanes indulgeth that Heathenish Corruption of destroying our selves When God calls we are bound to suffer and to suffer chearfully and willingly and readily but never Spontaneously or to have a hand in our own blood either by provoking our own Ruine or suffering for our own Cause or being our own Executioners This is to throw away the Talent lent us which ought thus onely to be spent when it may not be improved any other way for our Master's use 17. To suffer for Christ and the Gospels sake is indeed a favour from Heaven to you it is given in the behalf of Christ not onely to believe but to suffer for his sake but mark it must be for his sake and on his behalf and given too by God in the course of his providence not snatcht or stolne by our own Rashnesse and hastning the Occasion and Execution of it 18. God hath been pleased to set down in Scripture the Grounds and Causes upon which he Calls and we may and must submit to

sufferings and to sbrink when fairly called or run upon sufferings when not called the first is to crucifie Christ in his Cause and the last is to crucifie Christ in our selves but to be crucified for Christ is to suffer with him that we may be also glorified together 19. Give me leave my dear Brethren for whom I truly travel in Birth without offence to be plain with you in a few words of serious advice seasonably inferred from these Considerations which my hearty affection and faithfulness to you and this poor Church will not suffer me to omit I shall cease to trouble you 1. Let me beseech you to suspect that natural Corruption which upon Ambition Discontent and Temptation of Credit and Glory in the World is prone to hasten you in this Crisis of distemper to unwarrantable Sufferings 2. Take heed of being Hurried to suffering with the Motion of the Multitude or by the foud perswasion of an implicite faith or dependance upon the Principles and examples of others whose Temptations haply may be greater then yours and yet if you follow them their sufferings may be less Yea it is possible and worthy to be heeded that others may tempt you to follow them into that Condition wherein you indeed may suffer for them and yet they not suffer with you 3. Therefore having the glory of God the prosperity of Sion the peace of the Nation the progress of the Gospel the Salvation of Souls the fulfilling of your Ministry and provision for your Selves and your several Families before your eyes let nothing tempt you from all these that amount to no more then the pleasing and gratifying an Espoused party that resolves to be Angry for against all these I can see no reason why you should resemble that Spelunca Hienae which the Prophet cōplained of that is a fish as St. Chrysostom observes that hath but one back-bone and cannot turn except it turn all at one 4. Above all take heed of displeasing Christ by pleasing your selves or friends of provoking him to forsake you in you sufferings by dissembling to suffer for him when you Know you do not or when indeed you do not and you think you do To suffer the loss of all in pretence for Christ and therefore to suffer the loss of Christ too this is suffering indeed What can more imbitter our sufferings then to have the punishment of loss temporal seconded with the punishment of pain Spiritual and our dissembled sufferings for Christ rewarded with our real sufferings from him with a who hath required these things at your hands 5. Remember the great end of our Life and callings of our Stations and Relations we are not sent into the world properly to suffer but to do viz. to perform the Offices of Society required of us in our several places 2. The way to Triumph was not of old to be slain in the Battel but to have kept the Station and done all Military duties let us stand fast and not be shaken or moved with the blasts of envious reproaching or flattering words Let not small encounters of apprehended inconveniences make us flie or quit our duties 3. Let us fulfill our Ministry begun and Run the Race that is yet before us with patience and perseverance to the end despising the shame as our fore-runner did who may call us also to follow his steps as well through evil as good Report Yielding him Sweat in the Harvest of our Calling and not our Blood till he Calls for it 6. Pythagoras his Sholars were to suffer themselves to be slain rather then to stir their foot and tread down a Bean and Jarvice the Priest in King James his days though he had publiquely declared before that it was lawfull to take the Oath of Allegiance yet he would die in the refusall of it because it seemed not Expedient to him to take it then 2. Ah! my Brethren is there indeed no greater Latitude in Christian-liberty must we needs venture all upon a point of Indifferency or meer Expediency I dare not Determine how far a Divine positive Law loseth its hold and obligation in Case of Just fear or Necessitie yet when we see nothing in the things enjoyned that is against the Law of Nature and when there is no Rule to be found against them in the holy Scripture yea when the Case is such as indeed ours is that neither the primitive nor the Reformed Churches disallow of Conformity 'T is evident that at most there is ground of Scruple onely of the lawfulness there can be no Knowledge of the unlawfulness thereof 3. Now in such a Case Conscience cannot prohibite Conformity though very much is still pleaded from it for indeed in accurate Speaking it is not Conscience Corbo sum sum Tom. 1. p. 1. e. 12. that doth properly bind at all but that Law which Conscience takes Knowledge of and presents to our Vnderstanding And if the Law be not clear in it self or if Conscience take not a full or clear Knowledge of the Law especially if there be no Law at all in the Case we have no Knowledge to Enlighten and guide our Conscience we are in Ignorance in doubts or in Scruples and the Law of Conscience doth not now dictate to us what to do or Suffer and if in such a Case we choose to Suffer we may not say we suffer for Conscience I did it Ignorantly not Conscientiously saith the great Apostle Hence a Learned Divine in confutation of the Jesuists Dr. Don pseudo p. 238. suffering-zeal concludes that where God hath afforded us no way of attaining to Certain Knowledge though a man may have some such knowledge or Opinion as may sway him in an Indifferent Action by Reasons of Conveniency or with an Apparent Analogy with other points of more evident Certainty yet no man may Suffer any thing for these points as for his Conscience because though he lighted upon the Truth yet it was not by any Certain Way which God appointed for a Constant and Ordinary means to find out that Truth 6. But lest I enlarge beyond the bounds of a Preface In short O that my brethren would soberly ask themselves what that means I will have mercy and not Sacrifice is there no such thing as self-deniall in parting with our own Wills is no apprehended Inconvenience to be born for the discharge of our Trust to God and men is nothing tolerable that is not best or is nothing to be yielded out of charity and pity to the Church and State Our selves and Families Are the Talents of our offices our Gifts and our opportunities of doing good at our own disposall are the shrieks and cries of the Souls of our people of our wives and children hanging upon us easily answered or the importunity of Friends the Reasonings of Brethren the perswasions of all the Eminent forreign Reformed Divines the Authoritie of long continued Custome in our own Church or the Laws of the Land can all