Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	case_n	design_n	great_a	120	3	2.1115	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51089	A modest apology for the suspended bishops with a brief vindication of the address which was signed in their favour by the Grand-Jury of the county of Gloucester, at the last Lent assizes / by a gentleman of the said Grand-Jury.	Gentleman of the said Grand-Jury.	1690 (1690)	Wing M2358; ESTC R38872	21,535	34

A Modest APOLOGY For the SUSPENDED BISHOPS WITH A Brief Vindication of the Address which was signed in their Favour by the Grand-Jury of the County of GLOUCESTER At the last Lent Assizes By a Gentleman of the said Grand-Jury LONDON Printed by T. B. and are to be Sold by Randolph Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1690. To the Right Worshipful WILLIAM DENNIS Esq The High Sheriff of the County of GLOUCESTER Honored Sir I Here present you with a brief Vindication of Truth and Charity from the Insolent Spight of a restless Faction For there are certain busie Gentlemen in this Country that pass a rough Complement on me and others who by your Precept attended their Majesty's Service at Gloucester Nor are they content to traduce and bespatter us but they seem to joyn you in our Conspiracy Their common Language and how are they tickled with the Music of the Expression rans in the Cadence that our Master High Sheriff's Under Sheriff's Popish Jury signed a Petition against Law Certainly they will storm more violently against this new Attempt nor will the ensuing Discourse which contains a modest Apology for the distressed Bishops be grateful to them who laboured so industriously to stifle our last Paper It would raise a strange Agony of Mind in any moderate Person to consider the sordid Malice of our Adversaries and the impudent Calumnies with which they have vented their Spleen against us For they are become such topping Proficients in the Devils School that they can adapt a Story be it never so immodest to the various Circumstances of Time and Place By the Industry of this black Art they drew a dark Veil upon our Persons and our Designs and gave us a Character which they knew would disappoint the Success of of our Hopes For the Clergy of Norfolk having in most submissive Terms made their Application to the Court in Favor of their Bishop it was the Fortune of our Address to be preferred by us at the same juncture and no sooner were Copies of it convey'd to London but certain Zealots took the sudden Alarm and gave out according to their usual and profane Practice of downright Lying that the conforming Ministers of Gloucester-shire had signed a seditious Petition derogatory to the Proceedings of his Majesty and of the two Honorable Houses of Parliament and that this was performed by the joynt Combination of the Clergy of the two Diocesses The absurd Story gained such Credit and Vogue in the Town that many honest Gentlemen were so far impos'd on as to be drawn into the Belief of it And a Reverend and good prelate who was a famous Sufferer in the last Reign being sensibly afflicted with the Surprize dispatch'd a serious Letter to our Diocesan in which he expostulated with him on this Occasion The Affair also was so foully misrepresented at Court that our Friends there thought it an unreasonable Attempt to promote either of the two Addresses by which Means they both remain buried in a Suspension with the Bishops I think my self obliged in Answer to the unjust Aspersion to affirm that no Clergy-man had the View of our Address before it was published at the Assizes much less could it be an Address of theirs And I must also assure you that in framing the ensuing Discourse I received no Instructions or Assistance from them but my own Meditations which I acknowledge without any Mans Opinion in the Case are attended with great Poverty of Thought suggested to me the innocent Design and Management of the Trifle and by its mean Composure you will quickly perceive that I am no Plagiary Thus submitting the Justice of our present Cause to our good God with whom there is no Respect of Persons and at whose Tribunal all intriguing Lyars will be sentensed to a dreadful Flame that will eternally scorch their profane Lips I advise our Leasing-Makers to a timely Repentance and bid them adieu till they provoke us with new Indignities I am Honored Sir Your Humble Servant and Faithful Neighbour A Modest APOLOGY For the SUSPENDED BISHOPS c. AS in the Roman History we may observe that the Flattery of the People by which the Enormities of the Caesar's were professedly indulg'd gave an infallible proof to the distempers of a sick and languishing Government so if we reflect with just resentment on the like gross Vanity which prevailed for some Years in this Nation and derived encouragement from the Court which ought to have been the School of more noble Exploits we must acknowledge that the same slavish extravagance so fondly entertain'd among us ushered in the fatal degeneracy and corruption of our State But among all the fawning Addresses which were Dedicated to our Kings we may esteem none more pernicious then those bold Advances of Officious Ceremony which in Favour of most unjustifiable Proceedings struck at the Foundation of our Laws and led in a direct tendency to their Subversion For thô the pretences did bare a formal and sanctify'd Dress and were armed with the Phylactery of Pharisaical right'ousness yet did the Design carry with it a dreadful iniquity The intrigue was begun in Hell propos'd at Doway Licens'd at Rome confirm'd at Paris and was ready to have deliver'd it's effects in London and our other City's had not the Providence of God raised up to us a Deliverer It is well known who in that Age of Tryal were the Betrayers of their Country and who in complyance with a wretched Declaration which seem'd to Petition the People for Addresses were drawn into a most destructive Adventure I shall not therefore at present Pry into the full Mystery of that iniquity it being in part discover'd in another place of this discourse but leave it to the scourge of Historians and to other faithful Animadverters However I must not omit since it falls within the compass of our immediate review a Comical Scene I formerly beheld at Gloucester where that Skeleton of Law Judge Allebon perform'd a meritorious part and propos'd in open Court his Terms of Accommodation The Holy Man told us That our two Churches were agreed in the grand-point of the real Presence That the invocation of Saints was enjoyned by the fifth Comandment That 't was inconsistent with Christian Charity to suffer Penal-Laws and a distinguishing Test to render the Religion of a gracious Prince uneasy to the Subject and that a general Toleration would advance the dignity and Port of our Nation He drew parallel Lines from the prosperity of the Hans-Towns and from the flourishing State of the Low-Countries and I expected to have heard him sum up his Sermon with a remark on the Blessed Effects which the uninterrupted course of Liberty produc'd in Sodom Laish and Gibeah of Benjamin The kind and tender-hearted Grand-Jury among whom were herded Saints of many different Communions were soon enflamed with a Sympathizing Zeal and could not but gratify the little Scarlet Image with a Paper first convey'd in a Whisper to them from a Factor of