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	true_a	2,848	5	3.8360	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65870	Judgment fixed upon the accuser of our brethren and the real Christian-Quaker vindicated from the persecuting outrage of apostate informers chiefly from W. Rogers, F. Bugg, T. Crisp, John Pennyman and Jeffery Bullock ... / by that contemned servant of Christ George Whitehead.	Whitehead, George, 1636?-1723.	1682 (1682)	Wing W1937; ESTC R34747	166,538	377

been content with half of the 15 l. which G. Smith proffered thee but it seems thy end was so WHOLLY for Money that thou wouldst have the WHOLE Fifteen Pound according to thy own account Thus Selfish Arbitrary and Avaricious wast thou What a mean shift is it therefore for thee to say Thy end was not ONLY for Money We see what sorry shifts and slighty Subterfuges a bad Cause must have And as a person conscious to thy self disquieted and uneasie for a pretence thou now makest this Proposition namely S. Cater 's signing a Paper like this which follows of thy own forming and then thou wilt return the whole 15 l. Thy Paper is this viz. Memorandum That I S. Cater do hereby testifie that is my judgment That all Friends in the Ministry where they are Strangers ought to tell the Name and Habitation upon the apparent sight of the Informers coming into a meeting taking friends names in writing or otherwise in order to convict the Meeting that so we may all stand in a like suffering capacity Or if any have not freedom thus to do that then they ought to make satisfaction to such who suffer for them through their concealing their Names and Habitations and that such as refuse to perform his or their part in either of these two Propositions ought from thenceforth to be reputed blame-worthy and noted as such Witness my hand the day above-written per me Thus far thy Prescription Further adding viz. I say signe this Paper or one like it and I will return the said 15 l. for the reason aforesaid And this thou esteem'st a Condescention sufficient Thus art thou become a Dictator and Prescriber and Imposer upon others Here thou hast made a general Rule and Prescription as condition of thy returning the 15 l. to S. C. such an improbable condition as thou couldst not reasonably suppose would be complied with Thus insincere thou appearest Here 's a Canon an Edict of thy framing who hast made a great part of thy Book against Canons Prescriptions Rules Edicts Orders Excommunications c. How consistent art thou in thy work yea and if the Ministers will not observe this thy Canon to perform it then to be reputed Blame-worthy and noted as such and this thou wouldst have S. Cater subscribe But thy Canon or Prescription is illegal lame and defective yea it exceeds the severity and extent of the Conventicle Act which no where compels all Friends in the Ministry where thy are strangers to tell their Names and Habitations upon their apparent sight of Informers coming into a Meeting and taking Friends Names in writing or otherwise nor are any of the Meeters compelled by Law to tell their Names to Informers Thus Arbitrary Illegal and Foolish too art thou in thy Canon and Constitution thou wouldst enforce upon Friends of the Ministry where they are strangers who sometimes may be silent in a Meeting and sometimes ministring when Informers come in to take Names by thy Canon the Ministers in silence must tell their Names and Habitations to Informers and those that are ministring must stop to tell the Informers their Names and Habitations This illegal Imposition of thine I further except against in that it tends to gratifie the Informers and forward them in their designs and prosecution for a more speedy and easie Conviction for if they get their Names thus readily told aforehand as thy Canon and Prescription requires they go presently to the Justices swear the Offence and cause the Conviction in the absence of the party concerned In consideration of which divers of us even of late time in the Meetings at Westminster have not had freedom presently to tell our Names to Informers and Officers to leave them to inform the Justices what they please upon Oath without controul in our absence but rather we have chosen to go to the Justices that there we may tell our Names to them and have opportunity to object to their faces against any Mis-informations Thus thou hast failed and shewed thy shortness and shallowness in thy imperious and illegal Prescription and Imposition As for thy pressing for the Preachers who are Strangers to tell their Names as aforesaid and so to be in an Equal capacity with the Hearers in suffering 1 st We cannot make a Law to enjoyn them to tell their Names to Informers which the Law requires not I know none that refuse to tell their Names to the civil Magistrate We know the Preachers generally are most struck at and most liable to suffer and the Penalties are most severe upon them as 20 l. for a first and 40 l. for a second Offence so called and if Strangers they are not wholly free from Sufferings as thou sayest But all Preachers more lyable in the first place to suffer Imprisonment c. than others being most envyed and aimed at by the Persecutors 2 dly We cannot in point of Christianity Truth or good Conscience deem the Preacher an Offender if we own his Ministry So as to lay an Obligation upon him not only to tell his Name to Informers but to be the greatest Sufferer Truth 's interest and cause is but one in Minister and Hearer and Christian love leads us therein to sympathize and suffer one with another in Spirit yea and outwardly too if there be necessity and not to make preaching the Gospel an offence any more than meeting or hearing it Preacht seeing the Labour and Pains and greatest Hazard commonly is the Preachers the advantage thereof is the Hearers And if we have true Unity with the Gospel Preachers we shall not complain against them because of the Fines nor think our selves to be bound under thy Prescription or Canon who art both in Dis-union with them and Enmity against them much less to follow thy Crafty method to pay our selves out of their Estates when fined for them or for their not telling their Names to Informers on sight c. 3 dly If thou makest the Preachers such Offendors as that for want of telling their Names to Informers they must be Responsible to the full or wholly for the Fines laid upon Hearers on their account and thereupon thy Eye is so severe upon them as if they were the greatest Offendors This is but the same Spirit that 's in the Persecutors and Informers that 's not in unity with but in Enmity against the Gospel-Ministers This would not lay down its Life for the Brethren that will not suffer 5 l. or 10 l. for them And then I presume there 's no danger of thy suffering much on that account who couldst so craftily repay thy self the whole 15 l. from Samuel Cater In this very Action and thy malicious Book thou appearest a Person more ready to turn Informer against the true Ministers and Servants of Christ than to lose 10 l. on any of their account by thy offensive Characters and Popish Comparisons thou hast put upon them particularly upon George Fox William Penn

do not presently or immediatly see every thing that is recommended in the wisdom of God to be practised but must have time to weigh and consider matters before the Lord first in order to receive a clear understanding and judgment from him before they act therein So that in the mean time there must be a tender condescention patience and forbearance on all hands towards such not to look upon or judge their want of present clearness and their present fear to act because thereof an act of Refusal or Rebellion on their parts No no far be it from us knowing that such upright hearted ones even when but in a poor low and weak state will not oppose refuse or gain-say any thing they at present see not that 's either in it self good and honest or necessary for good order and society their uprightness tenderness honesty and fear towards God preserves them from contention and blind opposition in such cases whilst given up tenderly to wait till God reveal that unto them whether immediately or instrumentally which for a time they have not clearness in And be sure he will not be awanting in his divine counsel and openings to such § 2. To his charging the Pen-man with a groundness Complaint of Printing against G. F. without first proceeding judicially or hearing of matters face to face p. 39. Groundless Complaint is an untruth there was manifest ground for that complaint on W. R's own confession and principle viz. his enveighing against judging any man without hearing him Judging the merit of the cause without hearing the same Judging and Censuring a Person unheard in the defence of himself as being a grand Mark of Apostacy as in his Preface to his Christian-Quaker That W. R. has so ipso facto judged and condemned G. F. and others in divers things unheard in their own defence we have produced divers sufficient and unanswered Instances in our Treatise entituled The Accuser of our Brethren cast down and particularly his false construction on G. F's words viz. Do not make Bargains with that which is out of the Truth On which W. R. concludes a design of Imposition and so far as in G. F. lies to obstruct Friends from bargaining with such whom he condemns as having no right to bargain buy or sell until they answer by Condemnation or else that his meaning was that G. F. would not have Friends discourse with such nor yet to agree about any orderly Conference in order to a Reconciliation or Hearing of Differences c. concluding it must be one of these two meanings because a third he could not think of as the matter is fully treated on in our said Treatise Accuser p. 146 147 148 149 150 c. in which W. R's judgment and both his supposed Meanings are proved untrue But still to aggravate the matter against G. F. he saith He has used the utmost of his endeavours to obtain a Meeting with him for such an end that is for a hearing of matters face to face at several times since his last being in Bristol in the year 1677. and it will not be condescended to saith he p. 39 40. This still the more confirms the Complaint against him viz. his Printing against G. F. yea judging and condemning him without hearing the matters face to face for which he is condemned which is an extradicial and injurious proceedure and grand Mark of Apostacy so to do according to W. R's own judgment And his pretence That such a Meeting will not be condescended to will not excuse the fact that is his judging and censuring a Person unheard in his own defence c. as a grand Mark of Apostacy He might have had patience and rather waited an opportunity for meeting with G. F. than have condemned him in Print in divers things unheard in his own defence and that on his own false Suggestions Meanings and Constructions contrary to his own Doctrine which is become his own Self-condemnation § 3. Now wherein doth the Pen-man's false Suggestion and Vnchristian-like Treatment consist to prove him an Impious Prevaricator or down-right Forger as W. R. terms him p. 41. See how he attempts proof in these words viz. I shall at present cite only a few Instances thereof in his own words quoth he viz. p. 73. His main work is still to invalidate the Authority and Sentence of the true Church Pag. 87. Which answers and confutes W. R. in opposing outward Directions Methods and Forms relating to Church Government Pag. 88. His principal Objection against outward Orders Prescriptions Sentences Decrees Form of Church Government Discipline c. P. 91. His gain-saying and general Objections against us in relation to Church Government and Order amongst us the People called Quakers P. 261. Which answers his general opposition to outward Order Form and Discipline Thus hath W. R. cited our words by pieces Now if it be made appear that these things are justly laid to W. R's charge from his own words and sence thereof I hope he 'l see cause to be ashamed of his clamour of false Suggestion impious Prevaricator c. In order to which I thus directly proceed First That his work has been to invalidate the authority and sentence of the true Church On Mat. 5. and chap. 6. he saith Wherein there 's not the least tittle to countenance this sentence That the positive Sentence or Decision of the Church in matters of Conscience may be obligatory on Believers as in the third part of his Christian-Quaker p. 64. And his contest against those who he saith have approved a Plea for such a Church Government as claims a power of deciding matters relating to Conscience and outward things on occasion of Differences about worldly Estate and that others ought to obey such Decisions which says he in its natural consequence hath as we take it no less tendency than to claim Power over our Properties as well as Consciences as in the first part of his Christian-Quaker Note A sad but fallacious consequence detected in our Treatise Accuser from pag. 53 to p. 76. Is it not plain that W. R. has here endeavoured to invalidate the authority and sentence of the true Church by us pleaded if neither obligatory on Believers in matters of Conscience nor in outward things Or if the Church may not be allowed a Power of making decisions in matters of difference either relating to Conscience or outward Estate according to Mat. 18.17 and 1 Cor. 6. of what validity is the authority sentence or power of the Church with W. R What 's more plain against him than his own words before recited Secondly That he has opposed and objected against outward Orders Forms Discipline Prescriptions Sentences Decrees his Gain-saying and general Objections and Opposition to outward Order Form and Discipline relating to Church Government c. see how he argues the case against outward Orders Prescriptions Sentences Decrees c. under the new Covenant viz. because the Apostle's labour was to