Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
cause_n good_a great_a think_v 4,338 5 3.9369 3 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A34754 The countrey-minister's reflections on the city-ministers letter to his friend shewing the reasons why we cannot read the King's declaration in our churches. Countrey minister. 1688 (1688) Wing C6561; ESTC R7155 9,928 10

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

THE Countrey-Minister's REFLECTIONS ON THE City-Ministers Letter To his FRIEND Shewing the Reasons why We cannot Read the King's Declaration in Our Churches UNless you had told me in what manner your Friend was Concern'd when he met with His Majesties Order to Read His Declaration I cannot tell whether he had any ground to wonder or not It looks like Ingenuity in you to tell your Friend your thoughts freely but if you mean by freely the liberty you take to tell the World plainly how much you Clash with your Prince which seems to be your meaning by your saying It is not a time to be Reserved Such a Freedom taken might not long since have met with such a Suspition of something being Reserved in this presumed Freedom which might have been Accompanied with a dangerous Inuendo Your next Paragraph Owns You are intirely Out-witted which does as little Credit your Prudence as your following Discourse does your Cause But if you fall for want of Fore-cast who can help it You would not abate your Violence one jott when seasonably prompted to consider what the Fruit of your Rigorous and more then Legal Prosecution of Protestants upon Penal Laws would produce Nor will you stand to your Old and Avowed Principles There is indeed an Honourable way of Falling When a Christian is called to Suffer for such things as will bear him out in Suffering and whereof he will never have occasion to be Ashamed 1 Pet. 4. 16. But it may deserve a Clergy-mans Consideration Whether a Sturdy Resolvedness not to part with such things as have oft occasioned uncommendable Practices may not have some Affinity with that Evil-Doing and as a Busy-Body in other Mens matters which St. Peter cautions against v. 15. In the next place You says That to take away the Test and Penal Laws at this time is but one step from Popery Why did you not then Consent and Press to have them taken away when there was no such Danger yea when the Taking them away might have rendred the Introducing of Popery inconceivably Difficult if not Impossible But how do you know that you judge Right in this Case now Why say you We have the Concurring Opinion of the Nobility and Gentry with us who have already Suffered in this Cause But is this the proof of an Opinion to say That some of Honour and Wealth have Embraced and Adhere to it though with some Inconvenience to themselves It would almost tempt a man to think a Reasoner is at a great Loss when instead of Arguments he insists for proof on the Outside Grandeur of such as are of the Opinion he pleads for When the Prince and many of the People were averse to the Crucifying of CHRIST what a Clamour did the Clergy make Have any of the Rulers or the Pharisees believed on him But this People who know not the Law are Accursed John 7. 48 49. But suppose you are right in this point What Efficacy hath the Clergy's Reading the King's Declaration to take off the Tests and Penal Laws If the Clergy's Breath can shake or throw them away Either the Laws are of little worth and have a very sorry foundation or the Clergy are Men of an Admirable Character But say you Though our Reading do not immediately bring in Popery yet it sets open our Church Doors for it I cannot imagine Why our Church Doors may not be Shutt and Lock'd as fast after Reading as before But if the Clergy pretend to such Power with their breath as to break the Strongest Barrs set Open our Church-Doors so Wide as that they can never be Shut again They may well allow their Prince a Dispensing Power or how can He be Safe as long as they can breathe Say you If we comply with this Order all good Protestants will Despise and Hate us To Hate any Person is against an Essential part of a good Protestants Religion if the Order be not Sinful they will have no cause to Despise you because you read it and Act therein according to your Avowed Doctrine If the Order be in your Opinion Sinful Why do you not shew what Law of God is Broken by it This is that you should have done and not have insisted on such poor low considerations as Personal Danger Dishonour and falling without Pity He that Suffers on a Good Account hath Honour and Comfort enough in himself and from his God He that Suffers in a bad Cause falls Dishonourably though he have never so many Great Men to pity him The Great Difficulty You say of your Case is this That fall you must Sooner or Later And therefore like Prudent Men you think the Wisest Course is to be Ruined presently But it is not the first time I have heard of that Wise sort of People who are for a short Life and a Merry But what Necessity is there of your latter Falling This is certainly like a Melancholy Mans cherishing such a resolved Jealousie of wanting Bread at Last as makes him Pine himself to Death in the midst of Plenty But what is the ground of this Jealousie If we fall after Reading this is the way never to Rise more And what mean you by that Is it that after Reading the Declaration if Penal Laws be taken away you shall never be trusted again with such a Power to mischief your Fellow Subjects If this be all it may be all for the better for neither the Prosperity of the Church of Christ nor the Honour or Welfare of the Kingdom do at all depend on One Parties having it in their Power to Impoverish or Ruine all the Rest of the Nation for Meer Matters of Conscience You now come to Examine the Matter as you say Impartially And first Yo● Suppose That no Minister of the Church of England can give his consent to the Declaration This is just as much as to beg the Question you should prove and so all you Write signifies nothing with those who do not Suppose what you Suppose If you had indeed impartially Examined and Proved the matter of the Declaration to be Sinful you would have had no occasion to have discovered your Disloyalty in pretending an Authority against the Command of your Prince nor of Instancing as if you had lately perused the Old History of the Barons Wars that you have the Nobility and Gentry on your Side You say Reading the Declaration would be no fault at all but our duty when the King Commands it did we approve of the Matter of it This is not Express'd after the usual manner of the Church of England when treating with the Dissenters They would not then yield that Orders might be Suspended from a Publication till those who were required to publish them did approve the matter but it was then constantly Affirmed that the Order must be Obeyed if the matter of it were not plainly Sinful and of this you Asserted Authority was to judge Was not this the lowest you would ever stoop when