Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	king_n	kingdom_n	4,596	5	5.5955	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90798	The speech of Master Plydell, Esquire: concerning the church, Febr. 8. 1641.	Pleydell, William, b. 1601 or 2.	1641 (1641)	Wing P2658C; Thomason E196_29; ESTC R8355	1,605	7

THE SPEECH OF Master Plydell ESQVIRE Concerning the Church Febr. 8. 1641. London Printed 1641. THE SPEECH OF Master Plydell ESQVIRE Master Speaker I Have heard since I had the honour to sit here many grievances presented and truly Sir my heart bleeds within mee when I thinke of them especially those that concerne Religion But what should I speake of grievances concerning Religion when Religion it selfe is become a grievance nay the very Nurse and Mother of all grievances all scandalls all reproaches Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum SIR Not to trouble you with any long discourse if I have any sight That Bark both of Church and State hath a long time floated betwixt Sylla and Charybdis Popery on the one side and I know not what to call it on the other in many respects both alike dangerous unlesse the Italian Proverb may alter the Case God defend me from my reputed friends and I will defend my selfe from my profest enemies Sir We are entrusted by God the King and the Countrey with the managing of this Bark fraught with the fortunes of three great Kingdomes Now should wee so decline the former Rock that we dash on the other side I humbly offer it to this Honourable Assembly whether she might not have just cause to say she had changed her Pilot rather then her Condition and only shifted places to finde her ruine For Sir there is as much beyond Truth as on this side it and would we steere a right course wee must bee sure to keepe the Channell lest wee fall from one extreame to another from the dotage of Superstition to the frenzie of Prophanenesse from bowing to Idols to worship the Calves of our owne imaginations Sir I beseech you consider what libellous Pamphlets are now Printed what Sermons are preached not building hay and stubble but utterly subverting the foundations of Truth What irreverence in Churches what profanation of Gods Service to the scandall of Christianity the reproach of Religion and the intollerable griefe of all good men of which I may take up the words of Petrus de Aliaco to the Councell of Constance Nisi celeriter fiat reformatio audeo dicere quòd licet magna sint quae videmus tamen in brevi incomparabilia majora videmus post ista tam horrenda majora alia audiemus Sir I take God to record I am no mans Advocate no mans enemy but a faithfull lover of truth and peace and a dutifull Son of our distressed Mother the Church of England in whose behalfe and our owne my motion shall be shortly this That the Ministers petition with so much of their Remonstrance as hath been read may be committed and the rest of it concerning matter of Doctrine may be referred to some learned and approved Divines as have spent their time in that noble study For give me leave to tell you there is a Vulgus among the Clergy as among the Laity Et in utroque nil modicum and for these and all things which strike at the roote and branch as they please to call it I shall humbly move that we rather consider how to satisfie the petitioners with some timely declaration from both Houses of the lawfulnesse and conveniency of Episcopall Government derived from the Apostles and so long established in this Kingdome rather then to venture upon any alteration the consequence whereof the wisest man cannot foresee and in truth Sir should we once begin for my owne part I know not how or where we should stay Neverthelesse if any one doubt the superiority of Bishops over Priests and Deacons in Ecclesiasticall government or in ordination I shall be ready whensoever this House shall command me to make it good and I thinke by as pregnant testimonies as we are able to prove the difference betwixt Canonicall and Apocryphall Scripture the necessity of Infants baptisme or that the Apostles were the Authors of their owne Creed But Sir I hope you will save your selfe and me that labour and rather devise of some set way to binde up the Churches wounds which God knowes are too wide already that so the Clergy and Laity being made friends and all reduced to the modell of our Ancestors since the reformation we may all together preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and so his Majestie having graciously and prudently exprest himselfe I am the more confident wee shall not only put an end to all misintelligence betwixt Prince and People but also highly advance the Protestant cause and give a deadly blow to the Sea of Rome Sir I humbly crave the favour of the House for God is my witness Non potui aliter liberare animam meam FINIS