Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	church_n	just_a	schism_n	2,608	5	10.7463	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43669	Reflections upon a letter out of the country, to a member of this present Parliament occasioned by a late letter to a member of the House of Commons, concerning the bishops lately in the Tower, and now under suspension.	Hickes, George, 1642-1715.	1689 (1689)	Wing H1863; ESTC R20446	15,706	9

swear at all So much in reply Sir to your Downright Demonstration which you stole out of the Pastoral Letter and what right you have to steal other Folks Arguments and not cite them for it you can Best tell After your Arguments to the Bishops to induce them to take the Oath you say that if they really stumble at it then it is reasonable for them to give as good security to the Government as if they had taken it I know not Sir what Security you mean but certainly the approved peaceable Temper and quiet Disposition of those pious good Bishops and several other truly Conscientious Persons who had rather part with their Livelihoods than violate their Consciences by taking the Oaths now imposed is a far better Security to the Government than the Oaths of either inconsiderate or rash turbulent Spirits or self-interested Persons who to promote or secure their Secular Interest will as some of them formerly have taken both the Covenant and Engagement swallow any Oaths though never so apparently contradictory to their formerly Avowed Principles Solemn Declarations and Subscriptions or than the Oaths of some pretendly Scrupulous and Tender-consciened Men who by their Elusory Declarations and nice Distinctions endeavour to make void the obligation of the late Oaths You cannot but have heard how insignificant many Men have made the Oath with their Declarations and how many Books which are written for the taking of it have by their Expositions made it almost of no use to the Government Vindi●… of 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 89. A late Book written upon this Subject is published to perswade us that the Oath ony obliges those that take it to serve their Majesties in Matters that are for the Publick Good but not injuriously to K. J. and that the Fealty and Allegiance sworn to them is not inconsistent with that which is sworn to him and he wishes that the Parliament would in a Judicial manner so explain it and for the publick Good I wish so too Thus much by way of Apology for the Non Swearers in answer to your candid Suggestions after which having wiped your Mouth you call them again Excellent Persons 〈…〉 And wish they might continue in their Stations which they so well become But this is no sooner out but in the next Paragraph you foam agen for there they are guilty of Faction and Schism the Nation and have been the occasion of the expence of so much Treasure and blood Now Sir as to Faction and Schism in a Nation it is just as it is in the Church those who are not the Causes of it cannot be guilty of it and whether the Bishops and others that refuse the Oath are a Factious and Schismatical part of the Nation I refer you to the late Collection out of Judge Hales his Pomponius Atticus in reference of Factions that arise in a State or Kingdom I refer you to this Paper because all the World knows you have a particular Veneration for that Judges Memory who indeed was a most Judicious Lawyer a good Patriot and a very honest Man. And then as to their being the Occasion of so much Bloodshed in Ireland you might with as much reason have imputed it to their refusing the Declaration and their being sent to the Tower But it seems as some Men created Charles the First of Blessed Memory so you treat the Bishops they were in Profession his most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects but that they might make the People to hate him they imputed all the Bloodshed in Ireland to his Majesty and just so the Bishops are Reverend Persons for whom you have as great and true a Veneration as any can pretend to but you lay the Blood shed in Ireland at their Doors to make the People hate them But God be thanked it is somewhat too late to raise the Rabble upon them and all the World knows the not reducing of Ireland without Bloodshed is owing to other Causes nevertheless Sir the Bishops are beholding to you for making them the occasion of it and when God shall make Inquisition for that Blood it will be happy for you if you be found as innocent and free from the guilt of it as they are I know they have Charity enough to forgive you though you know what you do But Sir God will not forgive you unless you can bring your self to such a Temper as to ask their Pardon and make them amends for the Injuries you have done unto them for in the same Period by the help of your old Servant But you also impute the refusing of the the Oath to humour and represent their deprivation as their own Choice And indeed it was their own Choice as their going to the Tower was and they also deprive themselves as you express it and so their old Friends the R. C's said they sent themselves to the Tower. Unfortunate Men that are still so bent upon their own Ruin and why said another of their back Friends should we pity Men that will not pity themselves Then with all the Civility in the World you go about to tell them that the People forsooth will not be so sensible of their worth as to be concerned for their Sufferings and that they are mistaken in the computation in the number of their Friends as K. J. was of his by the Addresses to him But Sir how absurd and incongruous is your Comparison for when K. J. received the Addresses he was in the height of his Majesty as King but these Bishops ever since the Revolution have been in their Declension and since the first of August looked upon as Men who are not of this World and if any either Clergy-men or Lay-men have since exprest their Duty and concern for them they have no reason to suspect their Sincerity but on the contrary to believe that they are their Friends in reality as well as pretence No Sir they are the Men of Greatness and the Favourites of Princes who have most reason to fear that they are out in their Computation and if it were not to gratisie some Mens Vanity by the Comparison I would beg leave to mind them of Cardinal Woolsey for if ever they fall but half as low as he did they find themselves as much not out in their Account as you impudently say the Bishops were in the number of the Clergy who would take the Oaths and have their new Retinue reduc'd as you tell us the Church of the Donatists was to one single Person and then their Clients and Flatterers who worshipt before will stand afar off and say like those of Sejanus Nunquam si quid mihi credis amavi Hunc hominem In the conclusion of your Letter you tell us you do not think there is such a great scarcity of worthy Men in the Church but that it may be possible to find out four or five as good who may be able to supply the Bishops places and come up to their pitch Now Sir that there is no scarcity of good men in the Church is very true neither would there have been any tho you had not come among them but that any learned Men of true Moral Worth and Goodness can accept the Bishopricks to be vacated by the Deprivation of those excellent Persons is a Paradox to my belief Howbeit I doubt not but they will be supplied by Men worthy if not by worthy Men And as to those Two Persons who have succeeded in the Two last Vacancies I dare be bold to say that it would have blasted all the Reputation they have acquired if they had succeeded as some I hear are ready to do in the suspended Bishops Sees for Understanding and Good Men would have looked upon them no better than the Faithful Alexandrians did upon Gregory and George who successively filled the Chair of St. Athanasius when he was deprived All the Authority of the Emperor and Synod of Antioch could not reconcile them to such Successors which Eusebius Emisenus foreseeing prudently declined the Bishoprick when it was offer'd to him I wish some Venerable Me whose Reputations are yet recoverable would consider what reason there is to follow his Example but if they shall think fit to take their Chairs and any good People shall think it their Duty nevertheless to adhere to their old Bishops and Metropolitan then it shall be disputed upon true Catholick Principles on which side the Shism lies I have now Sir run thro' your Letter and least I should have omitted any thing in it which I should have answer'd or not perfectly answer'd any thing in it which I did not omit to supply either or both of those Defects I refer you to the following passages which I desire you to consult viz. Hist Reform tom 2. p. 243. Reflect on Varill hist 3. 4. tom p. 126. Defence of Refl on Varill p. 72. Marginal Note on Bishop Bedell's Letter to Wadsworth p. 444. of his Life or rather Hist of Passive Obed. p. 76. Letter to Mr. Thevenot p. 32. Collect. of 18. Papers p. 66. Vindication of the Authority c. in four Conferences in every page Hist Reform tom 1. p. 1. 107 Sir I would have set them down in Words at length but that I was afraid to trespass too much upon your Patience and if I have done so I beg your Pardon for it Page 8 and protest to you by all that Partiality and particular Affection which you have for the Bishops to a failing and by all the Veneration you have for those excellent Persons that I am Your most Affectionate Friend and Humble Servant A. Z.