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	life_n	see_v	2,826	5	3.2572	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49609	A letter from a minister in the country, to a member of the convocation	N. L., Minister in the country.	1689 (1689)	Wing L46; ESTC R1292	16,508	32

lies to seek peace and ensue it Was it a season for the Representatives of our Church and for us with them to declare to all the World they wanted not a due tenderness toward Dissenters and were willing to come to such a temper as should be thought fit when the matter should be considered and setled in a Parliament and Convocation Was it then their Temper and a Season when they were not in a condition when the King was against it and no Parliament or Convention to settle it And is it not their Temper and a Season when they are in a condition when the King is for it and a Parliament and Convocation in being to confirm it And can we think the Nation has or can forget it although we don't care to remember or perform it Not a Season Was it a Season to Unite when we had an Enemy ready to devour us And because he is with-drawn and for want of an Adversary shall we devour one another Are we yet without danger And if not have we less reason to fear when we are divided as we are now than when united as we were then Have we begun in the Spirit of Unity and Amity and are we now made perfect or secure by the Flesh of Contention and Obstinacy Protestant Peace-maker p. 62. It was observ'd by a Reverend Prelate of this Church I take it to be a greater fault in Conformists to be stiff and averse to Vnion than in any other sort inasmuch as the Principles we profess are more truly Catholick than those of any other I know But if this be our temper the Donatists were Catholicks to us for they and their Principles went one way but here we and our Principles are two But said I suppose there was never a Dissenter in the Land have I not known you willing forward and desirous to have those Alterations made that for ought I hear are like to be propos'd to you And have you all o' th' sudden lost your Candour as well as your Integrity And shall that which was before an Infirmity be adopted into a State of Perfection What do you think the Apocrypha able to vye with Canonical Scripture and the Old Translation of the Psalms to be more useful and more exact than the New and a State of the Church without Discipline more perfect than what is under the Regiment and influence of it Of a sudden I perceived that one of my Friends gave way but at length the other interrupted me and gravely replied My Friend you have over-run the Point for when we say it 's not Seeasonable we mean it 's not seasonable to change a good Settlement for a bad one that has pass'd the Test of an Age for what is yet to come And had we not better be content with our Constitution as it is with all its infirmities than to throw it all upon the chance of a new Settlement Upon this I saw all my former Arguing was lost and that I was to take the Case by a new handle Well! Suppose said I the Parliament illegal and the Government precarious and the Laws now made no Laws you are but where you were If theirs be no Law your old Law is firm and stable But if the Government Parliament and Law be good you will have as good a Law for your intended Establishment as you had in any one Parliament for your old And you are in so much the better condition as you have fewer Enemies and are in better circumstances of making Friends than before that is you will be in as much better a condition as your new if we may call it new is better than your old But pray said I to go a little further What do you think will follow if this Government sink which God forbid What will then be your Case Will you then retire to Declarations and Temper again Or can you think the Polyphemus of Popery will spare those that wait the Season and are not for a Union till a Union will do them no good Assure your selves my Friends you must then be content to part with your Consciences and your Religion to save your Lives or part with your Lives to save your Consciences I thought it was now high time to leave them to their Coach and Consideration And I hope by this time they are become Converts But my good Friend I have held you too long in fine you see where the Cause doth rest we are all become mighty Politicians or Tools for them that are so I pray God these Men be not wise too late but that they and we may know the things belonging to our Peace before they be hid from our Eyes I am Dear Sir Your Faithful Servant N. L. 20th Novemb. 1689. FINIS