Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	know_v	see_v	time_n	3,848	5	3.4906	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66150	A defence of the exposition of the doctrine of the Church of England against the exceptions of Monsieur de Meaux, late Bishop of Condom, and his vindicator : the contents are in the next leaf.	Wake, William, 1657-1737.	1686 (1686)	Wing W236; ESTC R524	126,770	228

Mother lies almost dissolved in tears for the divisions of her Children and her dutiful Sons on both sides are praying and endeavouring with all their industry to close them like an unnatural off-spring divert themselves in the quarrel find a harmony in her groans and make a droll of that which had they indeed any true zeal for Religion they ought to wish rather they could with their dearest Blood be so happy as to redress For what remains of the Vindication Vindicat. p. 106 107. I shall say but very little to it He enters upon his Conclusion with a tragical harangue of the hardships they have suffer'd both by and ever since our Reformation and how well we deserve their Excommunication upon that account And 't is no hard matter when men so well disposed as this Author seems to be to speak evil of us are to draw our Character to make it appear as odious and deformed as they desire Were I minded to recriminate I need not tell those who are but very little acquainted with the true History of these things what a fair field I should have for a requital The corruptions of the Church when this Reformation begun the unchristian lives of those Religious Inhabitants that he says were turn'd by us into the wide world the Cheats and Ignorance of the Clergy the Tricks and Artifices of their Popes to prevent that Reformation which many of their own Party no less than the Protestants desired both in the Head and the Members And since he mentions Cruelties the barbarous Butcheries executed on the Reformed in Savoy Bohemia Germany Ireland and to say no more the proceedings at this day in one of our Neighbour Countries whereof we have been our selves Eye-witnesses and of which the noble Charity of our Royal Soveraign towards these poor distressed Christians See the words of His Majesty's Brief notwithstanding all the vain endeavours of some to hide it suffers no honest Englishman now to doubt All these would furnish out matter enough for a Reply and satisfie the World that were the Reformed as bad as Hell it self could represent them the Romanists yet would of all men living have the least cause to complain of them But I desire not to heighten those Animosities which I so heartily wish were closed and would rather such things as these might on all hands be buried in eternal oblivion than brought forth to prevent that Union we had never more cause to hope for than at this time And for our Laws which he says have been made against them he knows well enough what occasion was given to Queen Elizabeth and King James the 1st to establish them and I shall rather refer him to the ‖ See that and a Vindication of it by the Secular Priests An. 1601. published with some other pieces in a Collection called The Jesuits Loyalty 4to Answer which my Lord Burleigh made above 100 years since to this complaint than take the opportunity he has so fairly given me to revive the Reasons As for those injuries he tells us that Perjury and Faction loaded them with Vindicat. p. 111. we are not concerned in them It is well known that the Church of England was no less if not more struck at in those times than themselves If their present change of fortune makes them indeed neither remember those injuries nor desire to revenge them it shews only that the favour of Providence has not made them forgetful of their duty nor their present prosperity unmindful of their future Interest This is not our concern who have never that we know of injured them unless to take all fair and lawful ways to defend our Religion as by Law established may possibly in some mens apprehensions be esteemed an injury The peace and liberty which we enjoy we do not ascribe to their Civility it is Gods Providence and our Soveraign's bounty whom the Church of England has ever so Loyally served whose Rights She asserted in the worst of times when to use our Authors own words Perjury and Faction for this very cause loaded her with all the injuries Hell it self could invent But we gloried to suffer for our duty to Him then and shall not fail should there ever be occasion to do it again And we have this testimony from our King which no time or malice shall be able to obliterate That the Church of England is by principle a Friend to Monarchy and I think cannot be charged to have ever been defective in any thing that might serve to strengthen and support it For what remains with reference to the Points in Controversie the foregoing Articles are but one continued confutation of his vain pretences And I shall only add this more to them that whenever he will undertake to make good any one thing that he has advanced against us either in his Book or Conclusion I will not fail to prove what I now affirm That there is not a word of truth in either of them In the mean time before I close this I cannot but take notice how much the state of our controversie with these men has of late been changed and what hopes we are willing to conceive from thence as to the sober part of their Communion that those Errors shall in time be reformed which they already seem not only to have discovered but to be ashamed of When our Fathers disputed against Popery the Question then was Whether it were lawful to Worship Images to Invocate Saints to Adore Reliques to depend upon our own Merits for Salvation and satisfie for the pain of our own Sins This was their task and they abundantly discharged it in proving these things to be unlawful contrary to our duty towards God and to the Authority of Holy Scripture But now in these our days there is started up a new Generation of men too wise to be imposed upon with those illusions that in blind and barbarous Ages had led the Church into so much Error and Superstition These see too clearly that such things as these must if possible be deny'd for that they cannot be maintain'd And they have accordingly undertaken it as the easier task by subtile distinctions and palliating expressions to wrest the definitions of their Councils to such a sense as may serve the best to protect them from these Errors rather than to go on in vain with their Predecessors to draw the Scripture and Fathers into the Party to defend them And that it may not be said I speak this at all adventures I will beg leave in a short recapitulation of what is largely proved in the foregoing Articles to offer a general view of it Of Religious Worship Old Popery New Popery 'T IS a wicked and foolish Error of the Lutherans and Calvinists to attribute * Impius Imperitus Lutheranorum Calvinistarum Error est nullum nisi Deo Religionis honorem tribuentium Maldonat in Matt. 5.34 pag. 126. B. Index Expurgat in Athanas

my self that I should have been ready in great measure to have acknowledged the Charge and to have submitted to his reproof I know how little fit I am for controversies of this kind That neither my Age nor Learning nor Opportunities have qualified me for such undertakings as the defence of my Religion and my duty to my Superiors have without any design of mine engaged me in And I doubt not but a Censor less severe than he who has thought fit to make himself my Adversary might have found out more real faults in my Book than he has noted pretended Errors But for the Calumnies and Misrepresentations Vindicat. pag. 22. for the unsincere dealings and falsifications he accuses me of and that in almost every Article here I must beg leave to justifie my self and assure the Vindicator whoever he be that my Religion I thank God needs not such defences nor would I ever have used these means to assert it if it did We have indeed heard of some that have look'd upon these things as not only lawful but even pious on such Occasions that have esteemed the interest of the Church so sacred as to be able to sanctifie the worst means that can be made use of to promote it Had I been bred in their Schools there might have been some more plausible grounds for such a suspicion and what wonder if I did no more than what I had been taught was lawful for me to do But I have not so learnt Christ Ephes 4.20 Rom. 3.8 I have been taught and am perswaded that no Evil may be done that good may come I am assured by S. Paul that they who say it may their damnation is just And did I now know of any one instance of those crimes whereof I am represented to the World as guilty in almost every Chapter I should think my self indispensably obliged to made a publick acknowledgement of it and thank the Vindicator that has called me to so necessary a duty But now that I am not conscious to my self of any thing of all this all that I have to reply to this uncharitable way of proceeding is to intreat him by the common name of Christian and those hopes of Eternity after which I believe we would all of us be thought sincerely to contend to consider how dangerous this way he has taken is what mischief it will bring in the opinion of all good Men of whatsoever perswasion they be to the very cause that is maintain'd by such means in a word what a sad purchace it will prove in the end if to lessen the reputation of an unknown obscure Adversary he should do that which shall lose him his own Soul But it is time now to clear my self of those Calumnies that are laid to my charge And the first is Vindicat. pag. 2. That I endeavour to represent Monsieur de Meaux's Exposition as a Book that palliates and prevaricates the Doctrine of his Church and the very Approbations of it as meer artifices to deceive the World not sincere much less authoritative Approbations either of the nature or principles of Monsieur de Meaux's Book I do not remember I have any where in express terms charged Monsieur de Meaux with prevaricating the Doctrine of his Church in the latter Editions of his Book though others I know have done it But however if this be the greatest of those Calumnies I am guilty of I am sure all that have ever lived among them and seen their practices and compared them with what he writes will easily absolve me and I shall hereafter shew that either Monsieur de Meaux has palliated or else the greatest of their Authors have strangely perverted the Doctrine of the Church As to the other part of the Accusation that I should say that the Approbations were meer Artifices to deceive the World it is not my Calumny but the Vindicator's mistake Expos of the C. E. pag. 15. I never thought those Letters Monsieur de Meaux has published any authoritative Approbations of his Book at all Indeed in the place which he cites I have said somewhat like it of the * Of which see more in the Appendix n. 3. p. 120. Popes Brief and am still of the same mind and till he shall think fit to answer the reasons that induced me to believe so he will hardly perswade me that this is a Calumny But if I am so little satisfied with the Approbations of Monsieur de Meaux 's Book Vindicat. pag. 3. I should at least have had some more authentick testimonies of what I my self publish And he thinks it wonderful that my Book should have found such a reception as it did only from my assuring the World that I had not palliated nor prevaricated the Doctrine of the Church of England but submitted it to her Censure and the sight of an Imprimatur when the Approbations of so many Learned Men and even of the Pope himself are not thought sufficient to secure Monsieur de Meaux's Treatise This indeed were somewhat if the truth of the Exposition were on either side to be taken from the number of the Approvers and not the nature of the Doctrine If Monsieur de Meaux has really palliated the Doctrine of the Church of Rome 't is not any number of Approbations that will be able to render him a faithful Expositor If my Exposition be conformable to the Doctrine of the Church of England and if not let him shew us the prevarications the want of a few Letters can at most argue only my interest not to have been so great as his or my Vanity less but will not render the Exposition ever the more unfaithful And though an Imprimatur be all the Authority that is usual with us on such Occasions yet the Vindicator may believe by the reception he acknowledges the Book to have had that it would have been no difficult matter to have obtain'd other Subscriptions than that of the Reverend Person who Licensed it and if that will be any satisfaction to him I do assure him it has been approved by several other Persons but little inferiour whether in Authority or Reputation to any Monsieur de Meaux has prefix'd to his Exposition For what remains of my Preface two things there are which he supposes worthy his Animadversion One that whereas I accuse Cardinal Capisucchi to have contradicted the Doctrine of the Exposition Vindicat. Pag. 17. we must take notice that the Bishop of Condom's intention was not to meddle with Scholastic Tenets but purely to deliver that Doctrine of the Church which was necessarily and universally receiv'd whereas Cardinal Capisucchi being obliged to no such strictness would not it may be contradict the problematical niceties of those Schools in which he had been Educated It is the Catholic distinction of this Author throughout his whole Vindication if any thing be alledged contrary to his liking that it is presently a Scholastic Tenet and not