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	let_v	lord_n	2,934	5	3.6705	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48029	A Letter from a Presbyterian minister to a member of Parliament		1693 (1693)	Wing L1429; ESTC R41463	8,102	13

it would appear They desire the Honourable States of Parliament to set up for as I understand them they would have an Independent Imperium in Imperio which cannot miss in a short time of Issue in that which will be eversive of the one and fatal to both But do they not well know that our Gracious King and Parliament has established Presbyterian Government as it was in the year 1592. And His Majesty has given repeated Assurances to the Church That he will inviolably preserve it all His Life Do they think then that they will destroy what they have Built and pluck up what they have planted which agrees so well with the Soyl and wants not its Divine Warrant I am told they are but few who Joyn in this Petition and most of these from their Consciousness to themselves of their Insufficiency Profanity or Heterodoxy Dispair of Admission into the Brotherhood of the Presbyterians and therefore would climb up to any Window if so be they might have Entrance and thereby access to their Livings and Stipends but have no Tenderness for our Lords Mediatory Crown and the Priviledges he has purchased and conferred upon his Church which do not in the least interfere with Magistrates Prerogatives For our Learned and Wise Parliament know our Principles ascribe as much power to them in reference to the Church as any Wise and Pious Magistrate will require We grant the Magistrate hath a power for repairing a broken Church though not for Constituting the frame of its Government and building such a Fabrick of a Church as he pleases A power for calling Church Assemblies to meet for the Government of the Church though not a power of hindering them to meet at all a Power of defending the True Religion the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Church though not a power to determine concerning these things at his pleasure a power to concurre by his Civil Sanction with the Determinations of the Church and confirm their Obligation on his Subjects tho' not a power to force the Church to follow his Dictats in Things Ecclesiastick And in a Word we grant him all power even in Ecclesiasticks that is Cumulative to the Churches Advantage tho we deny him to have any Privative power to the Churches Prejudice and our Fittedness to thir Principles is sufficiently confirmed because we could never be driven from them by a Tract of many Years violent Persecution And now because this Seribling of mine may go Abroad and amongst others reach the hands of those who are of the Episcopal way I 'll gratify a little the frankness of my own natural Disposition and deal roundly with the Episcopal Brethren and their Adherents and Abettors Only with this precaution that whatever indiscretion Defects or Mistakes what I say may be Taxed with these may not be casten upon my brethren For I ingenuously declare that by Counsel Knowledge nor Contryvance they have no accession to it And therefore let all these be lodged at my own Door and tho I be so tender of my self as to conceal my Name Yet I fear the Bluntness of the Stile Father it self and tho I expect to be lashed with Tongues as sometimes perhaps I have been undeservedly yet in my humble Fitts the desire endeavour and design of my Poor Soul is to think as meanly of my self as others can but seldom or never is my mind shaken with fear tho alace other passions equally dangerous are more predominant in me Let me therefore ask the Brethren and others of that way What makes you stand aloof and keep at so great distance from Conformity unto the present Establishment We who are Presbyterians cannot be so unthankful to you but we must acknowledge and I perswade my self the late King James know it that these of your Holy Order and Perswasion had the most Active Chief and pincipal hand in the late happy Revolution Pray let me not be mistaken it 's the Bishops and others in our neighbour Kingdom of England I speak of for our Scottish Bishops gave a most seasonable Testimony of their Loyalty expressing their Detestation of the then Prince of Orange his coming to England as an unjust and unnatural Invasion signed by them all Of this I crave pardon to be a Remembrancer to our Parliament and yet I cannot deny but they ought to be excused if they be all of a Piece and make no Bonds to declare as some of them did these wished rather to see Popery set up in Scotland then Presbytry And tho 't is not to be doubted but the Presbyterians in both Kingdoms had good will enough and were as Active as was possible Yet his present Majesty is more adebted to them for their cordial Reception of him and closs adhereing to him then for the change that was made and truely were I in their predicament I would value my party on that head and improve it But when I put my thoughts to the Rack to find out why it is they improve not this Advantage I cannot suppose it flows from a stupid carelessness this may be the case of such poor Souls among whom there hath been no Vision whose idol Shepherds have made them like themselves without any spiritual Sense Sometimes I think 't is Policy their carnal Wisdom teaching them to stand as Spectators and when things come to a perfect setlement they think to have a share in the Benefit tho they have nothing at stake In others I think it fear lest their Trade go down and no wonder tho such Crafts men make an Uproar and cry up their Diana or be content to divide the living Child and make a mixture like the transplanted Nations 2 King 19. Who feared the Lord and served graven Images others fear the Refiners fire and Fullers sope when the sons of Levi come to be tryed purified and purged but there is no fear that the Ark of God will smite any with Emrods and afflict him unless he be a Philistine in others 't is pride affectation of singularity rash Vows never to conform to Presbytry and big Expectations of a new Revolution I would have all separatists Examine their Principles by the Touchstone of the Sanctuary for in my Life I could never understand what could justifie separation but when the Terms of Communion were unlawful And now I crave pardon for my long Letter and shall presume to give you my Advice while ye are at the Helm of Government and because I love to offend no Friend to our Cause I give it you in the words of the great Apostle of the Gentiles Let your Moderation be known to all men the Lord is at hand Which I propose as the best expedient to prevent Convulsions in Church and State I remember a significant Sentence of an English man Power is a Liquid Substance put it in what Vessels you will 't is apt to run over Are there not with you even with you Sins against the Lord your God I have but two or three words more which I cannot ommit Mantain Unity amongst your selves intertain no enemy in your Bosoms for one secret enemy admitted to your Counsels is more dangerous then ten Thousand open and declared enemies And as ye desire to prosper and would have God to Bless you fail not by a full clear and incontravertable Act of Parliament that the present Judges may be ashamed to fly in the face of to Restore and Redintegrat these poor broken Sufferers by Forfaultures Fines and other wayes for Conscience sake in the Late Times to whose Prayers and these of their Predecessors called Puritans who bare the Heat and Burden of the Day ye owe your Deliverance it is not Charity but Justice to refresh their Bowels and that these Leeches and Spunges that have suckt themselves full and raised their Fortunes upon their Ruines be left as dry as they were at first if they would follow my Advice they would restore of their own accord what they have unjustly purchased For it is an uncontroverted Maxim in Divinity non tollitur peccatum ni restituatur Oblatum But if this be not to be expected of most of them then pray let Justice be speeded that Expences and Attendance upon Law Suits eat not out and exhaust the Principal in question and the little Stock that by a providence was hid from their Enemies But above all my earnest desire is That our Blessed LORD were first set into the full possession of His Right and that His Tabernacle were pitch before any of the Lots for our own Liberties or Interests were drawn This is that which David Sware unto the Lord and Vowed unto the Mighty God of Jacob surely I will not come into the Tabernacle of my House nor go up into my Bed I will not give sleep to mine Eyes or slumber to mine Eye-lids until I find out a place for the Lord an habitation for the Mighty God of Jacob. Psal 132.2 3 4 5. Now that the Lord may enable you first to Faithfulness and Thankfulness to God and then to our Saviour and Deliverer under him the Kings most Excellent Majesty whose praises without being a plagiary I would but obscure but you may read them in their due Elevation in the Sermons published since the Revolution by Tallitson Burnet Patrick and others and that our Jerusalem may be beautiful for situation the the Joy of the whole earth and God known in her Palaces for a Refuge under the auspicious Government of our King and Parliament is the hearty Prayer of Your Real Friend and Humble Servant