Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	king_n	law_n	prerogative_n	1,605	5	10.3114	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25701	An apology for the Parliament, humbly representing to Mr. John Gailhard some reasons why they did not at his request enact sanguinary laws against Protestants in their last session in two letters by different hands.		1697 (1697)	Wing A3552; ESTC R170358	34,745	43

Excellent truly Human truly Christian Natures so temper'd their Calvinism that 't was an inoffensive harmless Speculation if ever I have more Gods than one I do not say more personal Gods but more essentially distinct Gods a Hero so form'd shall be my second but tho I have an inquisitive Mind I think I am in no danger of multiplying Gods no I am resolved I will never do it unless it should be declar'd which I think next to impossible that no Heresy shall be conniv'd at but Tritheism 2. Mr. G. complains not indeed directly and in express words but by a side-wind thus Whether or not the Ecclesiastical Court hath in this occasion of Socinianism acted its part according to Laws I must not take upon me but leave it to the World to judg But notwithstanding all this he does not leave it to the World to judg but takes it upon himself nay he not only gives his Judgment upon the Case but also passes Sentence upon them that concur not in the same Judgment with him as appears by the Citations which he produces and the Reflections which he makes upon them Now in doing this which he thinks he ought not to do and promis'd that he would not he acts against the Light of Conscience which is a damnable Sin whether or no it be Heresy I will not dispute but without dispute 't is damnable it may perchance escape from Fire and Faggot but not from Fire and Brimstone unless it be expiated by a timely and hearty Repentance But what are his Citations of Law against Socinianism First a Passage or two out of a Book called The Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws began in the days of H. the 8th and continued in the time of Edw. the 6th That Book then was wrote before Faustus Socinus was born and before England could know any thing of his Uncle Laelius who was about twenty one Years old when Edw. the 6th died Again does Mr. Gailhard think that the Book which he quotes was wrote against Socinianism by inspired Writers in way of prophetick anticipation I am afraid the Contents thereof as to many particulars will plainly evince the contrary I know not what might appear admitting him to be an inspired Interpreter He may interpret Passages out of that Book if he so please against Quakerism as well as Socinianism or against the Scheme of any Party which may perchance arise reviving old and long buried true or false Speculations As for the Notions which I dislike in Socinianism for I am no Socinian but a Member of the Church of England by Law establish'd if I could not bring against them more pertinent and solid Arguments than Mr. Gailhard offers I would never dislike them therefore again I suspect that Mr. Gailhard after all his loud Outcries against blasphemous Socinianism as he phrases it is a subtle but real Socinian and writes booty Mr. G. to go on with his Citations and his booty writing presents the Parliament with a Fragment of a Letter from Edw. the 6th to to A. B. Cranmer Cum vos triginta c. Upon which he makes this booty Reflection So that there is something of a Parliament's Authority against Socinianism I may well call this a booty Reflection for in the next words he grants that that something wants a Parliamentary Stamp which is as much as to say it is a something that 's just as good as nothing We are not yet come to the end of Mr. G's Citations he presents us with a long Story from the Canons and Ecclesiastical Constitutions agreed upon in the Convocations of both Provinces Canterbury and York 1640. And lest the Authority of these Canons should in scornful manner be set aside for want of Parliamentary Sanction because it cannot be pretended that Jesus Christ gave Authority to the Preachers of his Gospel to impose Laws on the Subjects of the Civil Magistrate Mr. G. argumentatively notes That King Charles the First has by virtue of his Prerogative Royal and Supream Authority in Ecclesiastical Causes straightly enjoined and commanded those Canons and Constitutions to be diligently observed and executed But after all this with Mr. G's leave be it spoken our Lawyers know not of any such Prerogative Royal and Supream Authority in Ecclesiastical Causes by which the King alone without the Advice and Consent of his Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled is enabled to ratify and enforce the Ceremonial or Sanguinary Rules and Orders Canons and Constitutions I should have said of the Convocational Clergy Our Just and Lawful and Gracious King William pretends not to this Power nor is inclin'd to let any persecuting Priests loose upon his People and perhaps this is the true Reason and not his being chose by the People why he has no Defenders of his Title among such Priests here and there perhaps a moderate and sober Churchman owns him for his Rightful and Lawful Soveraign but Priests of persecuting Principles every Man of 'em spare not to revile him as a Conquering Usurper Let a Prince claim and exert a Prerogative Royal and Supream Authority to inforce Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical I question not but his obliged Clergy shall gratify him with a Right Divine tho he came in by a Foreign Power without and against the Consent of his People but Marriage-Right Proximity of Blood and Consent of the People together shall signify nothing if his Majesty out of a Fatherly Affection to all his loving Subjects will not execute the Vengeance of a Convocation or not call a Convocation to be taught his Duty 3. Mr. G. is troubled that Socinianism has met so little Opposition from the Bishops who as he intimates have not acted their parts and here he most andaciously and sliely slurs the Honour of my Lords the Bishops for tho several of them have wrote learnedly and angrily against Socinianism some in the Real some in the Nominal Trinitarian way yet Mr. G. takes no notice at all of this looking upon them as Men of the Arminian Perswasion who he tells us favour the Socinians go hand in hand with them mince the matter with them Hence he takes occassion to wish that after what several have written heretofore some Persons of Learning sound in the Doctrinal part of the 39 Articles i.e. Calvinists would appear as a very learned and able Prelat hath in some Points effectually done Now nothing could be more sly and malicious than this particular Commendation of a single Prelat as if all the rest favour'd the Socinians went hand in hand with them and mine'd the matter with them He often declares his Aversion from the Arminians of which Perswasion most of the Bishops in their Sermons and Prints have shewn themselves and as for the Calvinists the only Persons sound in the doctrinal part of the 39 Articles he says they have not appear'd i.e. they have been wanting to their Duty against Socinianism for which they were sitted by their Principles How unjust this

Complaint of Mr. G. against the Bishops is I need not stand to prove but I appeal to the Reader whether my Censure is not just If he had not been a rank Socinian or worse he would not when he pretended to write against the Socinians have so sliely and desperately wounded the Honour of the chief Defenders of the Orthodox Faith Indeed it looks a little odly that they should explain one and the same Article contradictory ways both of which can hardly be true but then since a way is discover'd whereby contradictory Expositors may both firmly hold the Orthodox Article tho they have different Notions of it I could wish that Mr. G. would not involve no not the Arminian Party in the same Condemnation with the Socinians for tho the Socinians also will agree to the Article if they may explain it yet they mu t be deem'd not to agree to the Article unless they will take up with one of the contradictory Explications which our Church can endure for I trow the Church may choose what contradictory Explications she will endure and is not obliged to endure all that may be offer'd that were not only to restrain her from imposing on backward Believers but subjecting her to be impos'd on by others which is prodigiously unreasonable But Mr. G. not only sliely intimates that the Bishops do not act their parts against Heresy having an Arminian Touch thereof themselves but that they actually stop the Course of Justice which he can never prove unless by the Argument of his own Impunity who so boldly calumniates and slanders them but however he intimates it and then pronounces that upon the failure of the Bishops the Magistrate is to look into 't The Roman Clergy take upon themselves all the Labour of convicting and condemning Hereticks and leave the Magistrate no trouble but to burn them but Mr. G. devolves the whole upon the Magistrate that is the meaning of those words The Magistrate is to look into it and he proves it to be their Duty because it is very just that every Man's hand should be against those Infidels whose hand is against every Man Which Argument is so happily form'd that it not only evinces it to be the Magistrate's Duty to burn Hereticks but it also proves that every Man is a Magistrate i.e. every Man that contributes to the burning of Hereticks his contributing to the burning of Hereticks constitutes him a Magistrate but I suppose he means that every Man who is constituted a Magistrate by his own Authority in taking upon himself to persecute Hereticks is a Magistrate only quoad hoc when the Heretick is burnt there 's an end of the Magistrate he becomes a private Man again Mr. G. would not do so extravagant a thing as to make every Man a Magistrate any longer than he had need of him to kill and burn But what if the lawful Magistrate does not and Mr. G's private Magistrate empower'd by his own Malice and ill Nature dares not defy the Toleration and push on the burning of Hereticks What then What then why then let them both look to 't he bombs them with Denunciations of Curses and Judgments from Scripture but the same not being levell'd against Patience and Long-suffering against brotherly Love and Charity against Toleration of Opinions which neither blaspheme God nor trouble the State it is reasonably presum'd that those minatory Bombs will neither in this World nor the next endamage the King or the Parliament who have enacted no Sanguinary Laws this last Session neither against Jews Turks nor infidels no nor against Church-Nominalists Socinian Unitarians nor real Tritheistick Trinitarians Thus I have examin'd the third Head and it appears that Heresy has not met the Opposition which Mr. G. could wish In the last place I will examine what Treatment he judges it to deserve Now here he comes in with a sage Aphorism or two There ought to be a Proportion betwixt the Distemper and the Remedy extream Distempers require extream Remedies And to prove the Extremity of the Distemper whereof he complains He tells us That to deny the Holy Trinity and our Saviour's Divinity is as much as in a Man lieth to pull our Religion up by the very Root and quite to overthrow it Which that the Socinians do he takes for granted tho those who are yet injuriously call'd Socinians declare that they only dispute some unscriptural Terms with us but are well satisfied with the sense put upon those Terms and Explications which a considerable Majority of the Church seem to be agreed in and together with them abhor the Tritheistick Doctrine abhor it as much as if it were Convocationally condemn'd only they would not give their consent for burning the Persons of the Tritheists whose Heresy tho very absur'd and of unhappy Influence yet is not worse than uncharitable and ill-natur'd Calvinism Farther to prove the extremity of the Distemper whereof he complains Mr. G. affirms that Idolatry and Blasphemy by which latter he will mean Socinianism are the two greatest Abominations in the sight of God and then with impudent Reflection on the King and Parliament he gives it us as his Judgment That to the Toleration of those two transcendent Wickednesses we may chiefly attribute the Cause of the heavy Chastisements which make the Nation uneasy i.e. expressing it in plain Words The King and Parliament have tolerated Popery and Socinianism and the Toleration of those two transcendent Wickednesses is the Cause of the War with the French and all the foul Miscarriages attending it of the debasing and clipping the Old and the scarcity of the New Money of the unseasonableness of the Weather of the rot among Sheep and the dearness of Mackeril One may be tempted to think that the Gentlemen of Mr. G's Kidney entertain the Opinion that the settled Course of Nature is sometimes chang'd by particular and special Providences for no other reason but that they may have the opportunity to charge this and that and th' other evil Accident on the Doctrines and Persons which for their Doctrines sake they mortally hate We are told that the Primitive Christians who for ought I know had as much Socinianism in them as the very Considerer himself were injuriously us'd just as they are now who are injuriously term'd Socinians If any evil Accident afflicted the Publick if Tiber overflow'd and damag'd the Country Christianos ad Leones throw the Christians to the Lions 't is long of their being tolerated that the Gods are so angry with the Romans Well! but Mr. G. reckons that he has fully shown the extremity of the Distemper Now let us see how he will proportion the Remedy In one place he declines the invidious Office and professes that he leaves it to the Piety and Christian Wisdom of the Parliament to find out and apply the true and proper Remedy but this is only a Copy of his Countenance and a Protestation against Fact for he 'll not trust the