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	whole_a	2,767	5	6.2168	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61188	A true account and declaration of the horrid conspiracy against the late King, his present Majesty, and the government as it was order'd to be published by His late Majesty.	Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713.; Oliver, John, 1616-1701, engraver.; England and Wales. Sovereign (1685-1688 : James II)	1685 (1685)	Wing S5068AA; ESTC R221757	86,115	235

Numerous Meeting at Theobalds where Rumbald was his frequent Hearer William Spence who had been Comptroler and was now Employed as Secretary to the Earl of Argyle taken in London under the Name of Butler John Nisbet born in Northumberland bred up at the University of Edenburgh where he was the Leader of those Seditious Students who rais'd a Tumult upon occasion of Burning the Pope in that City But of all the Conspirators whether English or Scotch the Man to whom next the late Earls of Shaftsbury and Argyle belong'd the chief place and precedence in the whole Diabolical Design was Robert Ferguson a Scotch-Man he had been divers Years a fierce Independent-Preacher in the City of London and had long Brandish'd his Poys'nous Tongue and Virulent Pen against the Government He is manifestly convicted to have had a Hand in the most Scandalous Libels of those Times And was always particularly cherished magnified and maintained by the Party for his peculiar Talent in aspersing the Government and reviling His Majesties Person So that upon all Accounts of his restless Spirit fluent Tongue subtil Brain and hellish Malice he was perfectly qualifi'd to be the great Incendiary and common Agitator of the whole Conspiracy and after Shaftsbury's Death it cannot be denied but he was the Life and Soul of all especially for the carrying on of the Assassination These Persons appear hitherto to have been the principal Contrivers or Instruments of the whole Treason in the Kingdoms of England and Scotland Divers others there are concerning whom more than conjectural Proofs may be given of their being engaged in it But His Majesty is willing to spare particular Names as far as may stand with the Necessary and Just Vindication of his Government It may suffice that of these His Majesty has here allowed to be mention'd the World is abundantly satisfied that the several Shares they undertook in this Conspiracy were very agreeable to their former well known perverse Principles and declared Disaffections to the Government It is therefore certain that in the Year 1682 before and especially after Midsummer-Day when the great Business of Electing the City Sheriffs came of course to be Agitated the whole Factious Interest in and about the Town prepared to employ the Main of their Power and Craft in preventing the Swearing of the True Sheriffs on the Michaelmas-Day ensuing All which time nothing was omitted by the Disloyal Citizens and great Numbers of Strangers unduly mingled with them in all their Assemblies to elude or terrifie the Honest Zeal of the Loyal and to deceive and gain over the doubtful Members of the City Whether by direct or indirect ways it matter'd not For just about that time the New and Devilish Invention came to be most in Vogue by which they made the receiving all Oaths and taking the very Blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper to be only an Instrument for the promoting their pretended Godly Designs Wherefore in that space of time all imaginable prophane and seemingly holy Cheats and Prevarications were Practis'd All sorts of Arms never before known to be procured in such Quantities by private Persons such as Blunderbusses Steel Armor cover'd with Silk and the like were carefully sought after and bought up The most improbable false Rumors fill'd every Street That now all true Protestants were to be Massacred in an Instant That such Sheriffs were Nominated as had contented to be the Executioners That Popery was speedily to be Introduced barefac'd and in Triumph That all faithful Adherents to the Government were but Papists in Mascarade Popery being still made the Word of Alarm to excite and exasperate the Populace Though it is manifest the Authors of all those Clamours against Popery never intended its Suppression For that would not have consisted with their Design which was by the Popular Dread of it upon all Occasions to shake the Crown and undermine the Church of England The Truth is to such a heighth of Arrogance were things grown on their side that whoever shall indifferently reflect on the dangerous Devices slanderous Reports and Writings and other violent Emotions of the whole Party that Summer in the City they will have just cause to conclude that the course of their Proceedings was not so much a Civil Struggle against their Fellow-Citizens for Victory in the Peaceable Choice of Two subordinate Officers of justice as a Decisive Contention for a Mastery over the whole Government Yet however cunningly the Train was laid it took no effect but on themselves The Noise and Rage of all their Mutinous Routs in Taverns and Coffee-Houses vanish'd into Air. Sir John Moor the Lord Mayor together with the greater number of wiser richer and better Citizens understood rightly and stuck unmoveably to the Kingdoms and their own true Interest Mr. North and Mr. Rich were quietly admitted and sworn Sheriffs at the appointed time with the usual Solemnities Immediately after this the very same Night the Earl of Shaftsbury privately withdrew from his own House redoubling his old Exclamations of Popery Tyranny Superstition Idolatry Oppressions Murders Irish Witnesses of whose Subornation no Man in the three Kingdoms could have given a more exact account than himself Whilst he thus lay secret in the City Romzey Walcot Ferguson Goodenough and others his Complices daily frequenting him they applied themselves with all diligence to expedite the Rebellious Work before projected His Vain-glory and the Conceit of his own Dexterity and his former constant success in making Confusions inclining him to fancy what his Flatterers suggested that the whole City and Kingdom were at his beck and upon the holding up of his Finger would presently rise in Arms to extirpate the two Brothers Slavery and Popery as they were lewdly wont in their private Debauches to style the King and his Royal Righness The said Earl of Shaftsbury had some time before let on foot a Treaty with the Earl of Argyle who after his escape out of Edenburgh-Castle came privily to London held divers Meetings with the Confederates and offer'd that for 30000 l. Sterling he would make a sturdy Commotion in Scotland But the Sum of Money demanded being so considerable and many other Scruples started and unforeseen Difficulties rising which could not so presently be removed as Argyle's pressing danger required he first quitted the Field and retired into Holland with intention there at a greater distance and more security to renew and prosecute the same Proposal About that time also both ways of destroying these Kingdoms were brought under their Consideration the general way of an Insurrection and the more compendious way as they call'd it of Assassinating the King and Duke in their return that October from Newmarket The Insurrection was instantly promoted on all Hands in Town and Country But the Assassination having then not been soon enough thought on went no farther than Discourse to be afterwards resumed and more deliberately provided for against the next Opportunity In the mean while the long expected Michaelmas-Day

effectual Course to provide for the future Peace and Stability of the Government yet it had like to have proved a present Occasion of its utter Ruine For when so many guilty Persons found that the great Point of the Sheriffs was resetled on its Antient Bottom and the City-Charter it self in hazard of being speedily vacated so that now there would be no farther evasion for them by any pretence of Law to escape unpunish'd Then they concluded it was high time to bring their Devilish Purposes to a quicker issue and once for all to strike boldly at the Heart of the KING and Kingdom Particularly the Earl of Shaftsbury being conscious to himself of the blackness of his Crimes and of the Iniquity of the Verdict by which he had for that time escaped and finding he was now within the compass of the Justice he had so lately frustrated and contemn'd thenceforth gave over all his quieter and more plausible Arts of Sedition whereby he proudly bragg'd he should in time as his Expression was Leisurely walk his Majesty out of his Dominions and on a sudden betook himself to more precipitate Enterprises Alarming his Companions with a prospect of their common danger thence inflaming some to Insurrections others to Assassinations supposing now there was no way left for him or them to justifie their former Misdemeanors and Treasons but by attempting and succeeding in greater Mischiefs This was found by evident Proof to have been the principal rise and occasion of ripening the Horrid Conspiracy in the Kingdom of England Nor could there possibly have happen'd a stronger Justification of His Majesties Counsels in attempting to rectifie the City-Juries and Elections since it is apparent his principal Enemies laid so much stress on the unjust Power they had therein usurp'd that being once fairly driven from that Strength they immediately resolv'd nothing less than a barefac'd and avow'd Rebellion could repair the Loss their Party sustain'd by so great a Blow As for His Majesties Kingdom of Scotland it is notorious there has been long shelter'd in it a desperate Faction of furious Zealots that under the old Professions of the Cause of Christ and a purer way of Gospel-Worship has grown up by degrees to a Violation at last not only of all the Rules and Institutions of true Religion but of common Humanity For does not the whole Christian World at this day behold with Horror that the most Villa nous Tenets of the fiercest Scottish Covenanters and even of their Remonstrators have been out-done by their Successors and Disciples in the Field-Meetings and Armed Conventicles Have they not thence proceeded to all the Execrable Rage of Rapine and Violence In so much that some of them have lived and died glorying in the most barbarous Murders and basest Cruelties refusing obstinately with their last Breath so much as to pray for His Majesty or to say God save the King though by an unexampled Mercy they had their Pardons assur'd to them at the very place and moment of their Execution upon that single Condition And besides the remains of those Bloody Enthusiasts whose Principles are not yet entirely extinguish'd though their force has been twice vanquish'd in open Field by Gods Providence prospering His Majesties Arms It is certain also the Peace of that Kingdom has of late been much indanger'd by other great Numbers of Factious and Seditious Spirits who though at first they would not venture to incourage publickly the others declared Treasons yet stuck not secretly to favour and foment their Cause and as the event infallibly proves would soon have Own'd and Headed their Fury had it prosper'd Wherefore the wise care of former Sessions of Parliament there having sufficiently provided by a due severity of Good Laws against the dreadful Consequences of continuing the Field-Meetings for the farther securing the Reformed Religion and the Antient Rights of the Crown and the Royal Family in that Kingdom it was judg'd adviseable by the Wisdom of His Majesties great Council the last Session of Parliament to appoint and Authorise a Solemn Test to be taken by all Persons in place of publick Trust or Power In that Session the Test was soon pass'd into an Act of State without any considerable opposition Though there were not wanting some turbulent Men in the Assembly who took that occasion of shewing how ill they were affected to the establish'd Government of their Country Which they could have no other inducement to be but either a desire of Commotions by reason of the desperate State of their own ill-spent Fortunes or Envy at the better Condition of Honester Men or some inveterate Contagion of Treason derived down to them from the last unhappy Age of Confusions Of that unquiet and seditious Party the chief and declared Head was the late Earl of Argyle who during the very sitting of the Parliament had by many indirect ways attempted to hinder His Majesties Service the said Earl and the then President of the Session and their Complices taking their opportunity in wording the Test to add thereto all the very same Clauses that have since giver any Colour of scruple to themseves But when all his crafts for obstructing the Bill were defeated by the far greater Number of well disposed Members the Loyal Voters for it being at least Ten to one of the disaffected then no sooner was the Parliament adjourn'd but the said Earl of Argyle first at Edenburgh next in traversing several Shires did make it his Chief Business to insinuate every where into the minds of the Clergy and Laity the most malicious prejudices imaginable against the whole Tenour of the Test And afterwards on his return to Edenburgh he often presumptuously declared he would either not take it at all or take it only with a reserve of his own explanation which he put in Writing and dispers'd the contrivance of it being such as dissolves all the Obligations of the Oath and makes his own present Fancy and private Opinion the only Standard whereby he meant to be guided in all the publick Duties of his Loyalty and Allegiance At length His Majesties High Commissioner the Duke and the Privy Council of that Kingdom having been well inform'd of the said Earls seditious Carriage in City and Country and being fully confirm'd in their Judgments and Confidences of his Trayterous Purposes in that fallacious and equivocating Paraphrase on the Test which he own'd in their presence perverting thereby the sound sense and eluding the force of His Majesties Laws in order to set the Subjects loose from their Obedience and to perpetuate Schism in the Church and Faction in the State Upon these Grounds he was most deservedly Prosecuted by His Majesties Advocate before the Soveraign Justice-Court according to the known Laws of his Country and after a full and equal Tryal he was found guilty of Treason by the Learned Judges and a Jury hot only of his Peers but also many of them his own nearest Relations Soon after Judgment given

in the Letters That those superscrib'd to West and Robert Thomson were directed to Major Holmes under those false Names That he the said Spence could open the Letters and explain the way of reading them which he did and then justified upon Oath the Explanation he had made to be according to their true sense It happen'd also at the same time whilst Spence was under close Examination that Mr. Gray of Crechie a Scotch Gentleman skill'd in the Art of Cyphers did without any the least Communication with Spence Decypher some of the principal of the said Earls Letters and when both Spence's and Mr. Gray's Copies were found to agree exactly there could not possibly have been given a more certain Demonstration of the Truth of Spence's way of Decyphering which he confess'd he was taught by Argyle himself In this manner were these Letters proved Authentick and the right meaning of them unfolded And it is evident by the plain Tenour of them that some of them were written by the said Earl just about the time that the Conspiracy was near ripening and when he was inform'd of Ten Thousand Pounds only order'd to be sent him Others were written after he had heard that the Plot was discover'd In every one of those Papers it is easie to trace out manifest Footsteps of the whole Conspiracy But particularly that of June 21 New Style which is June the 11th of the English written the very day before Keeling made the first discovery contains not only a vehement expostulation of the said Earl of Argyle's touching the delay of the Mony from England and the smallness of the Sum design'd but a plain Narration how the Insurrection was to be concerted in both Kingdoms The Body of the Letter was written in Cypher the Preface and Postscript in plain Hand in both there is reference made to Butler's that is Spence's being able to expound it and from the very same Spence was taken the Exposition of it upon Oath Therein the said Earl tells his Correspondent in England That he knew not the Grounds their Friends had gone upon to offer so little Mony nor did he understand what Assistance they would give That till he knew both and heard what Carstares or any other they should send over had to say he purpos'd neither to refuse his service nor object against any thing resolv'd here However that the said Earl had truly mention'd in his Proposition formerly made the very least Sum he thought could do the Business effectually which was not half of what had been requisite in another Juncture of Affairs That what Mony he propos'd to be rais'd was so much within the power of the Persons concern'd that if a little less could do the Business he had thought it would not he stood upon That the said Earl reckon'd the Assistance of the Horse absolutely necessary for the first Brush That as to the precise Number nam'd he would not be peremptory but he believ'd there would need that effectual Number That 1000 might be as easily rais'd as 5 or 600 and it were hard if it stuck at the Odds. That they should consider whether all ought to be hazarded upon so small a difference as to the Mony That though 't is true what was propounded is more by half than is requisite for the first Weeks Work yet soon after all or more will be necessary and then Arms cannot be sent like Mony by Bills That there are above 1200 Horse and Dragoons and 2000 Foot at least in Scotland all well appointed and tolerably well commanded That it were hard to expect Country People on Foot without Horse should beat them triple their Number That if Multitudes could be got together they would still need more Arms and more Provisions That if some considerable thing be not suddenly done at the first appearing it may fright a little but will do no good That the standing Forces will take up some station probably at Stirling That they will have for aid not only the Militia of Twenty Thousand Foot and 2000 Horse but all the Heritors to the Number it may be of 50000 Men That though many should be unwilling to fight for the standing Forces yet most will once joyn and many will be as concern'd for them as any can be against them That though the said Earls Party should have at first all the success imaginable yet it is impossible but some will keep together and have assistance from all the three Kingdoms then it will not betime to call for more Arms far less for more Mony to buy them and they should then prove like the Foolish Virgins That it is next to be consider'd how the discontented English Lords could employ so much Mony and so many Horse better for their own Interest though the Protestant Cause were not concern'd this being a little Sum and small Fonds to raise so many Men and by Gods Blessing to repress the whole Power of Scotland That the Horse to be sent from England need stay but a little while to do a Job unless future events should make Scotland the Seat of the War which would be yet more to the advantage of England That by the best Husbanding the total of the Mony proposed it cannot purchase Arms and absolute Necessaries for one time for an Army of the Number they were to deal with That nothing out of the whole is design'd to be bestow'd on many things useful and some necessary as Tents Waggons Cloaths Shooes Horse Horseshooes c. All which are not only Once to be had but daily recruited much less was any of it apportion'd to provide for Meat or Drink Intelligence or other incident Charges That some honest well-meaning good People may undertake for little because they can do little and know little what is to be done That the said Earl had made the reckoning as low as if he had been to pay it all out of his own Purse That he was resolv'd never to touch the Mony only to have it issued out according to Order That he freely submits to any knowing Souldier for the Lists and to any skilful Merchant for the Prices be had calculated That it will be a great incouragement for Persons of Estates and consideration to venture when they shall know there is a project and prospect of the whole Affair and Necessaries provided for such an attempt That if after the said Earl shall have spoken with Carstares he sees he is able to do any service he will be very willing if he be not able he will pray God some other may That before it be given over he wishes he might have such a conference as he had mentioned in another Letter a week before wherein he had offer'd either to come over privately in Person or to meet any to be sent from hence That he expected not all the Horse from the discontented Lords but some considerable part might be rais'd by particular Friends That he had yet more to add to