Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	power_n	spiritual_a	temporal_a	3,522	5	8.8171	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61294	A discourse concerning the devotions of the Church of Rome, especially, as compared with those of the Church of England in which it is shewn, that whatever the Romanists pretend, there is not so true devotion among them, nor such rational provision for it, nor encouragement to it, as in the church established by law among us.	Stanley, William, 1647-1731.	1685 (1685)	Wing S5244; ESTC R1838	44,628	70

true they are more able to see the Laws of their Church Duly executed but it is to their disparagement to have so much Power and yet to do so little good with it As for us we had rather deserve more then we have then that it should be said that we have more power then we deserve And whatever Power our Church wants and whatever loss Religion suffers by this means we justly Charge the Church of Rome with the guilt of it who have made all Princes jealous and affraid of all church-Church-Power by their invading their temporal Rights under pretence of a Spiritual Jurisdiction In short though somewhat may be said for the worst thing and a very bad Cause may have a great deal pleaded in its Vindication as we have seen in all the foregoing Helps and Instances of Devotion which the Church of Rome boasts of yet if we consider them they all in some respect or other come short of what they pretend to several of them being very improper many plainly Nonsensical and Ridiculous they proceed from bad Principles are done in an undue Manner and Measure or to serve some bad end or design or some such other way offend even the most secure Practices which most resemble true Self-denial are countenanced or enjoyned rather to make a show or to gratifie some Tempers then to advance Devotion for excesses and over-actings are often Infirmities and the effects of Weakness steddiness being the most certain sign of Strength as the shaking Palsy is a Disease and Sign of Weakness as well as the Dead one 3. I now come to consider such things in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of Rome as tend directly to promote Debauchery of Manners and Carelessness in Devotion I 'll insist only on these few among very many First The unlimited Power which they ascribe to the Church or to the Pope as Head or Monarch of it For the People are taught that he can make null Duties that were made necessary by God and make necessary what was not so before The Consequence of which Doctrine is plainly this that a Man may safely disobey and neglect the serving of God if he pay but his due respects to the Pope And yet their Casuists have defined that the Pope can dispense with Sins or give leave to do things forbidden by the law of God as well as pardon them when committed as in the Dispensations with unlawful Marriages And on the other side he can excuse them from doing what they are by their Duty to God bound to do as in his Dispensations with Vows though made never so solemnly to God himself That is he can bind where God hath left us loose and he can loose where God has bound us Nay a Superiour can give a Dispensation even when he doubteth whether it be lawful or no because in a doubtful case the milder side is to be taken And if the Reason ceaseth for which the Dispensation was given yet the Dispensation doth not cease Nay a Dispensation may be granted where there is no Reason or Cause for it and yet the Dispensation is valid notwithstanding And not the Pope only but every Bishop and Priest hath his Share of this Power only there are some reserved and more profitable Cases which his Holiness only can dispense in And though I cannot tell what they think yet I am sure their Casuists are very shy of saying that there is any Case in which there may not be a Dispensation granted for the doing of it or a Pardon for it when it is done And all Indulgencies are directly designed to hinder Devotion for they are given to free Men from the Necessity of Mortification frequent Alms and Prayers c. which else would have been enjoyned as Penance and yet we know that these are the chiefest parts of Devotion And as their general Doctrine concerning the validity of Pardons and Indulgencies is very destructive of all true Piety and Religion So Secondly Their constant Practice of giving Absolution before Penance is in a more especial manner influential to that purpose For the People are taught to believe that by the Priests saying I absolve thee c. the Sin is actually pardoned by God And though indeed their Guides of Confessors advise that Absolution should not be given till Penance be imposed and accepted yet when the Confessor thinks that the Penitent will accept of the Penance he may absolve him first That is the Person may be absolved before he accept the Penance or even promise to perform it but it is their constant Method to absolve him before Penance be actually perform'd Now if their Absolution be of force the Person is free from his Sin and sure enough of Heaven whether he perform any Penance or no Which Practice gives all imaginable Encouragement and License to Sin the fear of Penance being the only restraint from Sin which they pretend to but if the Sin be fully pardoned before Penance be accepted or performed I see not why a man should trouble himself much for the performance of his Penance he sees plainly that it is only an Appendix that is used to be annext to Absolution but is neither necessary in it self nor for Absolution the Sin is pardon'd already and at the worst there is only some temporal Punishment to be satisfied for which he may get rid of several other ways Nay indeed the true and ancient Notion of Penance is utterly destroyed by its being imposed and performed after Absolution For Penance according to the Primitive use of it was a severe course of Life prescribed to a Person that had grieviously offended as a proper Method for him at the same time to testifie his own sorrow for his Sin and abhorrence of it and to create in him an Aversation to the Like for the time to come and also to satisfie the Church of all this that so he might be admitted to Absolution and the Communion And therefore their Penances were always publick and indeed it is by publick Penance only that all these so good ends can possibly be answered But now in the Church of Rome the Offender is pardoned without any thing of this he is not put to any grief for his Sin before he be absolved It is left wholly to his own Honesty and Generosity whether he will perform any Penance for his Sin N●y indeed so loath are they to appear severe against Sin or Cruel to the Sinner that when in the Council of Trent some would have revived this DIscipline by enacting publick Penance they were violently opposed and over-ruled tho St. Gregory a Pope of Rome had held it to be of Divine Right and their Casuists since teach that a Confessor cannot or ought not to enjoyn a publick Penance So that by this means a Man is not so much as to be put to the blush for his Sins for no such Penance must be imposed by which the Sin may be known and he is sure