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	lord_n	word_n	2,981	5	3.8029	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60703	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 ...	Iraeneus, junior.	1693 (1693)	Wing S4396; ESTC R14451	122,821	116

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 ●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 bo●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 ga●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

Weather Mountains want too much That being past a Mole-hill now they grutch Witness that great regret some of them have express against that Kindness and Favour which they King and two succeeding Parliaments have beyond denial evideneed to our Dissenting Protestant Brethren who with Fury bite the Chain which restrains them from falling foul upon their former Prey Besides their unreasonable stickle to prevent the least Abatement in Matters which respect the Ceremonial part of our Worship A Conformity to which goes with them for the whole Duty of a Minister Obedience to Government a very good and Gospel Doctrine was the constant Theme of the Pulpit but our high men have done with it as the Priest did with the Sword of Goliah wound it up in the Ephod and laid it behind the Altar Though when time was our whole Duty was placed in a wild Notion and extravagant Pretence to Loyalty No Man being esteemed Loyal or a Lover of his Prince who did not so far doat as to follow the Measures and promote the Designs of turning the best tempered Government in the World into a Despotick and Arbitrary Rule These wife Master-builders had raised the Fabrick of Sovereign Power to that ●mmense Height and extravagant Projecture as no way agreed with the just Methods of any civil Architecture putting in the mean time the Mischief of the Project far from themselves Supposing that if it did fall it might perhaps grind their Enemies to Powder but never dreamt of its tipping upon their own Heads as we have before observed Insomuch that whatever they heard which might awaken them to prevent their impending Ruine went for nothing but the ever-jealous Notions and mu●●nous Suggestions of disloyal and dissaffected Men. But when they began to feel the Massy weight of an overgrown Monarch with what Zeal did they stickle to put a Bridle into the Mouth and Hook into the Nostrils of that Leviathan whose Tusks had ript up the Belly of our Laws and Liberties upon whose Neck they had so lately thrown the Reigns of Government which the Prince whom God now hath blest us with hath delivered back again to the People Esteeming the Prerogative never better asserted than when the Rights and Properties of the Subject the great end of Government are kept inviolate and that Caesar can never have his due if the People be denied what 's theirs Being so great an Artist in governing as to carry a steddy Hand and keep the Ballance even for if too much weight be put into one Scale the other will kick up as our late King by a costly Experiment found true But as it pleased the Almighty to raise up a Moses to deliver us from the Brick-kilns and to break the Yoak from off the neck of our civil Liberties so we trust he will rescue us from the iron Furnaces too loosing every Burthen and letting our Consciences go free which have not been so much gauled with Points of Doctrine and Articles of Faith and Religion as with the rites and Ceremonies of it We so generally agree as to Matters of Faith that Dissenters in respect of that are so few as to their Number and as to their Quality so inconsiderable that they are not able to make any Schism or cause any disturbance amongst us Could we but find a Temper to accommodate these lesser things which by a Spirit of Meekness and Moderation Christian Charity and Forbearance might easily be effected we should have an end of Controversie Heats would cool Animosities would cease they 'd want Fuel to feed them and Matter to work upon The making Sides and Parties to elect Members for Parliament would be at an end which have so frequently fermented the Humours of the Body politick into lasting and dangerous Factions and Distempers Were but our Contests about the Form and Rites of Religion by some wise and prudent Concordate framed by our Governours determined and moderated we need not fear we should fall out about Matters of State being all agreed to bear out share in the Charge necessary for its Grandeur and Defence We should all sit under our Vines and Fig-tress leading a peaceable and quiet Life when once these Bones of Contention were taken out of the way and Apples of Strife which they say grow upon a Tree that 's neither good nor evil become forbidden Fruit. Besides we are not sturdy Beggars we ask not Talents but Shekels we only desire to wash and be clean from those additions to Divine Worship which we are afraid may defile our Consciences and not be so well pleasing to God Things which the Imposers tell us are Matters indifferent when abstracted from their Authority But suppose it should be an inconvenience to take them away yet sure so great a good as an universal Quiet would be sufficient to commute for no greater Nuisance But we are perswaded of the contrary from the Reasons we have alledged besides the Authorities of some of the greatest Prelates and Members of the Church of England viz. Hooper Bishop of Worcester Jewel Bishop of Salisbury Sands Arch-bishop of York Horne Bishop of Winchester Why should I again name Cranmer Ridley Grindal upon this subject who endeavoured to have the Habits of the Clergy as a Popish Relique cast out The Arch-bishop of St. Andrews speaking in his Sermon at the Assembly of Perth did acknowledge That the Conveniency of them was doubted by many but not without Cause c. Novations in a Church even in the smallest things are dangerous had it been in our Power to have disswaded or declined them most certainly we would c. Mr. Sprint also though a Conformist yet saith It may be granted that offence and hinderance to Edification do arise from these our Ceremonies He confesseth also That the best Divines wisht them to be abolished Which by her own Confession is in the Power of the Church to grant Which speaking in the Preface of the Common Prayer See 34. Art of Religion saith that the Ceremonies which remain may be for just Causes taken away altered or changed and gives good reason for it because they are in their own nature indifferent and so alterable The Words be these The particular Forms of Divine Worship and the Rites and Ceremonies appointed to be used therein being things in their own nature indifferent and alterable and so acknowledged It is but reasonable upon weighty and important Considerations according to the various Exigency of times and occasions such Changes and Alterations should be made therein as to those that are in place of Authority should from time to time seem either necessary or expedient accordingly we find that in the Reigns of several Princes of Blessed Memory since the Reformation the Church upon just and weighty Considerations her thereunto moving hath yielded to make such alterations in such Particulars as in their respective times were thought convenient c. As for weighty Causes sure we never had any more ponderous to incline the