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	law_n	work_n	2,920	5	6.2264	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61417	An apology for, and an invitation to the people call'd Quakers to rectifie some errors which through the scandals givers they have fallen into : wherein the true original causes both humane and divine of all the divisions of the church and mischiefs in the state and among the people are plainly and briefly opened and detected.	Stephens, Edward, d. 1706.	1697 (1697)	Wing S5417; ESTC R23660	29,103	65

with one of their Fingers nor intermit the complement of a Dinner to consult of what themselves profess to be matter of great Importance whose Prudence prefers to countenance Religion with Perukes and Laces and Topknots and Servants in Livery rather than to bear the Reproach of Christ in bearing Testimony against the Vanities of the Age by the tacit Reproof of them in a decent but plain and a little unfashionable Attire who preferr Charity at home in providing for the temporal concerns of themselves and their Families with some little creditable Acts of Charity as we call it before trusting to Providence in more liberal Contributions to unfashionable Good Works to leave such I say and to come close to the business to the State of the Church of which I am yet a Member and am not satisfied to separate while I live in the Nation notwithstanding all I dislike in it for this is the Root of all and principally to be considered and they are to take care of the Dissenters If we consider the Great things belonging to the Charge of the Governours of this Church both severally in their particular Diocesses the State of the Clergy and People there and joyntly to them all as one Body viz. The Court and the Nobility The Vniversities The Parliament so far as Religion is concerned there The Prisons which might be made Schools of Virtue but are now Nourseries of all Vice and Wickedness and Condemned Persons there for whose Assistance they of the Roman Communion imploy the ablest and best qualified of their Clergy and we the most ordinary though they are not a few who are every Year Executed in this City and throughout the Nation The Foreign Plantations and the Propagation of the Christian Religion by that Means abroad for our Neglect of which the Monks and Jesuits and Quakers and such as we call Phanaticks will rise up in Judgment against them and the Dissenters at home for they also belong to their Care to remove all just Occasions give all reasonable Satisfaction and to use all truly Christian Means to reduce them If all these besides divers others which cannot presently be thought on be considered What Account can be given that may reasonably pass with a considerate Mortal Man of any of these and What Account then can be given of all to the Immortal All-seeing Righteous God These are Generals of each of which a particular and clear Account must be given by every one of that Order what sense he hath had of his Duty in that respect and what Care and Endeavours he hath used in discharge thereof To these I will add but one or two Particulars of Occurrences in this Reign One of a Bill for Suppression of Vice and Debauchery drawn indeed at their Request but after it had been perused and perfected not only by able Counsel but by all the Judges then in Town particularly the Lord Chief Justice Polexfin the Lord Chief Baron Atkyns Mr. Justice Dolbin Baron Letchmare and I think one or two more and fair written out put into their hands and a Motion made by the Bishop of Chester to bring it into the House and granted by the Lords and yet stifled and suppressed in their hands Another a Needful and Hopeful Reformation begun by the Authority and Encouragement of the QUEEN and not only vigorously prosecuted here in Middlesex but in a hopeful way in many other Cities and Counties all over the Nation and this stopped first by a Combination of Middlesex Justices I need say no more but at last more effectually in a Judicature of Equity in the Presence of no less than seven of our Reverend Prelates by two wicked Men the one Speaker and the other a Member of Parliament the * Mr. Ralph Hartley who is still a Sufferer between a Succession of City Magistrates and a Combination of Surry Justices and some other persons and shamefully oppressed by them Justice of the Peace who had been most diligent and other persons concerned in the Promotion of that Good Work checked vilified and abused without any just cause to the discouragement of the Execution of the Laws and Contempt of Her Majesty's Authority and all in the Presence of those Bishops who came on purpose to countenance the Cause of Reformation were satisfied of the Iniquity of the Proceedings against it and yet not one of them ever appeared after in it to any purpose more than in one little printed Discourse in Vindication of the Gentleman so abused as aforesaid And what Account can be given of these things It is a great Truth That neither King nor Parliament nor Bishops of themselves and their own Motion have done any one Act that I know of worthy of the Name of Christian And where lyeth the Fault of all this but at their door who instead of Admonishing and Exciting and Animating to due Returns of true Gratitude in Fact to God for his admirable Providence have by their Neglect and the consequences of it provoked the Favours of Providence to withdraw and to leave us to our selves and to eat the Fruit of our own doings And whence comes this Neglect of so many so obliged but from a common Defect of Good Education at the Universities and the Enchantment of their Preferments But is not this Great Uncharitableness may our Grave Prudential Gentlemen say thus to lay open to the World the Nakedness of our Governours and of the Church Doubtless as great as for a Physician to prescribe a bitter Potion to a tender Patient or a Chirurgeon to cut or burn after tryal of more gentle means what is found otherwise incurable It is that they at whose door lyeth the Root of all 〈◊〉 Evil may give Glory to God by taking Sha●● to themselves and giving Good Example Humiliation and Reformation to others But they will not I hope the despised Quakers 〈◊〉 be so wise as to accept the Honour of beginni●● the Example For all have sinned and co●● short of the Glory of God But Who call'd You to this Office may o● Prudentialists say By what Authority dost The this and Who gave Thee this Authority 〈◊〉 who gave me Eyes to see and a Heart to 〈◊〉 sensible of it and a Mind to be Faithful to Hi●● who call'd me and led me by his Hand to h●● Holy Service not for filthy Lucre's sake n●● to make a Trade of it not to seek the Wor● in the Church but to serve Him in the Servic● of all Men in the best manner I can FINIS

Subtilty of the Enemy and the supine Negligence and Inconsiderateness and Folly of Men. And woe be to them who dare presume to be the Instruments and Leaders in these Abuses and Doctrines It is certain that our Saviour gave Instructions to his Apostles for the Settling of his Church and that they accordingly in all places where there were a competent number of Converts did ordain Elders and gave Authority to others to do the like and so settled a Succession in the Church which hath continued all over the World to this day And it is certain that the State of the Jews was so corrupted in his time as provoked the Judgment of God upon them so that they are a Monument thereof all over the World to this day and yet neither He nor his Disciples did ever refuse communion with them till they were cast out and so far was he from allowing them to separate that he foretold their being cast out of the Synagogues as part of the Persecution they were to suffer It is also certain that our Saviour did foretell that many false Prophets that is false Teachers should come in his Name and deceive many and gave great Caution not to go out or believe them and that his Apostles did the like and did with great earnestness exhort all to beware of Divisions Schisms and Separations in the Church And accordingly in all Ages for Men to take upon them the Office of Elders or Ministers of the Gospel without a Regular Ordination derived by Succession from the Apostles or to draw away people after them and engage them in Separate Parties hath been looked upon as a heinous Sin and whoever have done so have been Infamous in the Church ever since And therefore if our Dissenters did continue daily with one accord at our Temples as the primitive Christians did and did continue their Assemblies at their own Meeting-places for Instruction and Edification without any Separation from the Church provided there was nothing but true Christian Doctrine taught amongst them I do not see but they might be of very good Use and deserve not only an Indulgence but Encouragement from the Publick Authority But they who make a Trade of it to engage Separate Parties I do verily believe have much to answer for before God and those who desire to be Christians indeed had need to beware of them And this I must in justice say after all I have said concerning what is amiss amongst us that thanks be to God we have those amongst us who for good Learning for profitable Preaching and for sincere Piety Devotion and all Virtue are no way inferior to any of the Dissenters if to be equalled by any of them and yet I cannot say they are so many but there may be reason enough to receive those Labourers also into our Lord's Harvest And I heartily wish it was well considered How they may be made more serviceable in so important and needful a Work without any thing of a Separation and that they would consider Who They are who sit in Moses or rather the Apostles Seat and What our Lord doth require in that respect And now to come more particularly to the PEOPLE of that Party call'd Quakers I must first acquaint them that I have not only had several Conferences with the Principal Persons of their Party whom they call Ministers but have also sent them several Letters and Papers to their Second Days Meetings And as our Conferences have hitherto been managed in a very friendly manner so I do desire to proceed in the same manner with them also and therefore what is directed at first only to the second days Meeting I shall desire them now to receive as intended from the first for them all though I thought it most fair and decent to proceed in that order And it is as followeth To William Penn and the rest of the Friends with him at their second days Meeting in Grace-Church-Street William and the rest of the Friends with thee MY Hearts desire and Prayer to God for you all is that ye may be saved for I am perswaded that you have a Zeal of God at least many of you though not according to Knowledge in some things Nevertheless whereto ye have attained in that I desire ye may be established and that God will be graciously pleased to reveal the rest to you that ye may be perfect and intire wanting nothing For which purpose I come I trust by the Grace of God with a Message of Grace and Peace to you I am well satisfied that it is no meer Humane Project or Artifice that at first raised you up and hath conducted you hitherto but a Supernatural Power and that it is of the Lord some way or other as was the Separation of the Ten Tribes from Rehoboam 1 King 12 ● for Correction and Reformation of something ami● in this Church And therefore I dare not presume either upon my own head or by my own Ability t● intermeddle in it But my Heart is inlarged towards you upon these Considerations 1. Tha● ye do assert one of the Great and Chief Principle● of the Christian Religion which I have observe● to be very unworthily and even despitefully treated by too many who have gotten into or seek Preferments and Imployment in the Church without Chec● or Reproof and so unworthily deserted by most for fear of reproach or disgrace or hindrance in their Preferment that I have not known it generously asserted by above two or three in the Pulpit but those great Men indeed though it be plainly a Doctrine most authentickly and solemnly professed and declared in the Church of England 2. That ye do bear a good Testimony against other Abuses connived at or tolerated amongst us 3. I am moved with Pity towards you that you should have so great Causes of Offence or Scandal given you against the Holy and Established Institutions and Ordinances of Christ for the Ministerial Office for the Admission of Proselytes and for the great Solemnity of the Christian Worship which hath been so long abused with Controversies that I know very few Persons now amongst us who do rightly and compleatly understand it and even against the Person Satisfaction and Merits of Christ himself But when I consider your Notions and Sentiments concerning these things though I am well satisfied that you are under the Conduct and Energy of some Spiritual Power yet What that Spirit is and Whether One or Divers in my Judgment doth deserve very good Consideration Ye know what Spirit it was which God sent between Abimelech and the Shechemites Jud. 9.23 and what that was that was sent from the Lord to Saul 1 Sam. 6.14 and what that was that was commissioned by God in the case of Ahab 1 King 22.22 23. and what that was in the midst of the Princes of Noph Isa 19.14 which was from the Lord too And that such a Spirit hath been among some call'd Quakers is manifest both by