Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A60703
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Deo ecclesiæ & conscientiæ ergo, or, A plea for abatement in matters of conformity to several injunctions and orders of the Church of England to which are added some considerations of the hypothesis of a king de jure and de facto, proving that King William is King of England &c as well of right as fact and not by a bare actual possession of the throne / by Irænevs Junior ...
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Iraeneus, junior.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing S4396; ESTC R14451
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122,821
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116
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Institution are duly administred pure and separate from those Rites and Ceremonies which are by them accounted to be at best of doubtful Disputation and have been the Causes accidentally at least of â—very great Contest and Confusions amongst us For this Reason good Mr. (a) Acts and Monuments Vol. 3. Fox prayed that God would ease us of them viz. because they have been the Cause saith he of much Blindness and Strife In the other Men of Scruple know they cannot injoy God's Ordinances of hearing the Word Praying Communicating in the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper nor their Children baptized but these Divine Institutions must be levened with those Ceremonies which to them are doubtful they fear unlawful which makes them abstain from celebrating the Evangelical Passeover because these sowre Herbs must be its Sawce Which though it be affirmed by the Imposers to be insipid and to have no taste either good or bad but of an indifferent nature yet when they taste they see and according to the best of their Understandings find the contrary they feel a Flavour of Superstition upon their Palats and the more intently they look the greater Eye of Red they espy in them And upon the closest Application of their Judgments find a Fust of Popery or else they mistake They like the Meat well but the Cookery is too much of the Garlick strain Is it not then likely that the best and wisest Men will choose that part which hath least of hazard Now according to the Opinions on boâ—h sides the controverted Rites may be omitted and yet the Sacraments duly administred otherwise surely the Bishops and Clergy in Scotland would not have received the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper sitting as their Practice was before the late Abolition of Episcopacy Nor would our Rubrick declare that in private Baptism where it is to be administred without Godfathers and Sign of the Cross the Child is sufficiently baptized forbidding any to question it Whence we may conclude that the most wary Men will be apt to forsake the Communion of the Church of England as the most unsafe of the two Which by the Expedient propounded might be easily prevented for the future and seems no faint Argument for an act of Comprehension though it should not bring over those who are actually engaged as Pastors and Ministers of indulged Congregations So that the Act of Indulgence seems by a necessary Consequence to draw after it another of Comprehension as large and powerful as the Inveteracy of our Schism shall require and Wisdom of our Lawgivers shall think fit to grant least those Riots which the former Act hath suffered to grow up should so far exhaust the Sap that the Tree of the Church should shrink and dwindle into a degenerate Plant. But if it would submit to have some of its Luxuriances which have been esteemed as Right-hands to be cut off it might become a more thriving yea and pleasanter Plant than ever So far superseding the Act of Indulgence as to take away the subject Matter of it that in process of time it might become useless there remaining few or none that would flee to it for succor yea and all the Penal Laws too whilst all could chearfully submit to its equitable Orders and inoffensive Rules and Canons For when the Controverted things are once removed the rest of her Commands would not be grievous 4thly Suppose the Dissenters should not be gaâ—n'd Yet is there not regard to be had to the tender Consciences of Conformists who rather than violate the Peace or break the Unity of the Church have a long time laboured under an heavy Burthen Suppose these make their Wants known and Desires open Is there no Mercy no Pity to be extended to them nor Consideration to be had of them Must their Jaws be ever bored through with these Thorns and their Faces ground without any remorse Thanks be to God we have a Prince now whose design and endeavour is to lose every Burthen and to let the oppressed to free Nay the Fathers of the Church have put on Bowels of Compassion too If any be inexorable they are our Brethren with whom such Complainants have been accounted no better than Traytors to the State betrayers of the Church and if they perish in the Pit become Slaves and Vassals to the Caldaeans nay whatever becomes of them it moves them not Pray God this Sin be not laid to their charge which can be esteemed no less if we may take the Judgment of one dignified among them Who thus expresseth himself I am perswaded this is one of the provoking Sins of the Conformists That they have been so backward of doing what they were convinced they * See the Preface to the Common-Prayer c. 34 Article of Religion Every particular or national Church hath Authority to ordain change and abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church might have done with a good Conscience when they were earnestly prest to it by their Dissenting Brethren and had Authority to do it but they refused it They have the same Price now put into their Hands The King invites them the necessity of uniting Protestants against the common and implacable Enemy cries aloud to them the Groans of burthened and oppressed Consciences of their Brethren plead with them But I am afraid they do but surdis canere We may seek them earnestly but they will not be found of us Nay I wish there may not be the same reason to believe now what a Reverend Doctor and Dignitary of the Church hath some years since declared to the World viz. That they seem rather resolved to break all in pieces and hazard our Religion and let these sad Effects our Divisions still continue than to abate their Rigour in imposing what they may lawfully alter or abolish Nay that which puts so keen an edge upon our Complaints as to cut every good Man to the Heart is That this Judgment which hath laid so heavy upon us hath begun at the Church Those whom God designed to be Fishers of Men have spent their time and pains in gathering up these Shells and Pebbles upon the Shore and as one well observes have wrangled about them too But such is the present and remarkable Providence of god that many of the Bishops and Clergy are pleading for that now as to themselves they too much slighted and decry'd as Humour and Faction in others Now they plead Conscience and urge it in excuse for not swearing Allegiance and Fidelity to the Government to whom I wish as large Dispensations as be consistent with the Nature of Government and present Constitution of the Kingdom But we ever understood those things which are destructive to the State to be out of the Question and beyond the Bounds of it yea and Modesty too It might be said as it was in another case If they ask this let them ask the Kingdom also For as it hath been ever thought that a Liberty in such things
to take him for dishonest or a Fool As to the first I am very loath to call a Man a Knave without great Grounds for it especially a Minister upon whose Personal Reputation much of the Success of his Ministry depends Conscience I know is a tender thing and more especially ought so to be in the case of an Oath I will suppose that he acted sincerely in his Refusal and out of tenderness to the Faith he had plighted to his former Sovereign and I hope he hath not acted upon any worse Principle in swearing Allegiance to the present Powers and that he hath not the Person of his Prince in admiration because of advantage For many considering the nature of his Argument do think it may justly defeat his expectation of a Bishoprick if he had any such 〈…〉 As for the latter I mean his Wisdom something is to be said for that too for he who upon the Matter challenges an whole Party of Men to try their Skill with him had need have his Wits about him I find his Wit was once commended for refusing to give an Answer to Antisozzo and the Reason which himself gave for it was because he would not make the Dispute a trial of Wit But he hath given a fresher Argument still than this viz. That he wrote his Case of Allegiance under a just and moderate Prince who notwithstanding the smartest Reflections upon him being satisfied with the Testimony of a good Conscience and sincerity of his Designs did as Saul when they said this Man shall not reign over us and brought him no presents yet he held his peace Had he lived in a Reign when Men suffered by Innuendo's he might have found it much harder to have defended himself against an Impeachment for his Crime against the State than his too late Submission to the present Government The Crowns of Princes are heavy enough of themselves without the exceeding weight and guilt of Usurpation or Intrusion into another's Right being added to them King William would pay dear for his Kingdom to purchase it at the price of a good Conscience and loss of a far better Inheritance and the Providence of God placing him upon the Throne will prove no very good Plea for holding the Possession of it against the just Claim and civil Right of another For though the Providence of God may make use of the unjust Actions of one to punish justly the Sin of another yet the Injustice and Violence of such dealings can no way be excused by the disposal of an over-ruling Providence directing bad Actions to work a good End If a Person stronger than I by virtue of his Power or Interest take away my Goods God by such means may punish me perhaps for my Sins yet it will be a very insufficient Plea on his part before God or hi◠own Conscience For those whom the Lord hath made use of as the Rods of his Anger he hath afterward cast into the Fire notwithstanding they have effected his Will upon others who have sinned against him and whom he hath justly punished by such means for their offences And therefore it will be worth the inquiry whether our King be so only de facto or de jure for if he wants a civil Right his Possession will not make his Chair of State easie be it never so august or great nor quiet his Conscience and Kings have Consciences as well as other Men For though he accounted not his Life dear to him nor too much to hazard for the rescuing our Lifes and Properties yet to purchase them with the loss of that which is of more worth than the whole World and all the Kingdoms of it and to live and die in mortal Sin for our sakes would be too costly a Ransome That one Sovereign Prince may levy War against another Quot actionum forensium sunt fontes totidem sunt belli where Matters in Controversie can be no other ways determined is I am sure though I be no Lawyer agreeable to the Law of * Jure gentium inquit Livius ita comparatum est ut arma armis propulsentur Et Florentinus jus esse gentium ait ut vim atque injuriam propulsemus Vim vi repellere licere Cassius scribit Apud Vlpianum idque naturâ comparatum esse viserit See Grotius de jure Bell. pac Lib. 1. Cap. 2. Nations and Nature too That being the last Appeal to him who is the Judge of all the Earth imploring him to determine the Question and to give Victory and Success according to the Merits of the Cause That the Prince of Orange was a Sovereign Prince is no question who by the pretended Birth of a Prince of Wales was barred of his right of Succession an Heir apparent being set up in room of the Presumptive This 't is well known was the subject Matter of various Discourses and the common Entertainment wherever we came the usual Question that was started being De foetu formato Which in every corner of the Nation was lampooned and ridiculed as a Court-stratagem for ever to extirpate Heresie and to settle the Romish Faith in these Kingdoms to all Generations As this made many Infidels at home so it created Unbelievers abroad The Queen when the days were accomplished that she should bring forth was delivered or pretended to be delivered of a Son by which all the Expectations of the P. of O. to succeed in the Government must consequentially miscarry as also the Peoples hopes of securing their Religion in the next Reign became wholly abortive The Prince judging the Crown of England worth a Trial who being encouraged by the Equity of his Cause and Invitation of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal made a Descent upon England not with any design of Conquest witness the small Numbers he had levied to attend him but that a Parliament might be called and the Matters in question without any Blood shed not only relating to himself but the People too who at one Heat were by the Dispensing Power despoiled of their ancient Liberties and reduced to the greatest Slavery yea the best and most equitable Constitution under Heaven sunk into an Arbitrary and meer Despotick Rule and Government But to forestal the Prince and foreclose him as to any Examination in Parliament Witnesses were called Affidavits were made to prove the Birth of the P. of Wales But what were the Witnesses But either Court-Officers and Dependants profest Papists feigned Protestants whose Evidences filled a Paper with such stuff as would sooner turn a Man's Stomach that his Faith For many think that if fair dealing had been designed Proxies would have been allowed at the choice of the two next Princesses of the Blood and Heirs to the Crown to have been present at the Labour who might if what is pretended were true have averred upon Oath that they saw the Queen delivered of this Son by which that long and fulsom Affidavit might have been spared the