Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	sin_n	suffer_v	suffering_n	2,120	5	9.4937	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48238	A letter to the three absolvers, Mr. Cook, Mr. Collier and Mr. Snett being reflections on the papers delivered by Sir John Friend, and Sir William Parkyns, to the sheriffs of London and Middlesex, at Tyburn, the place of execution, April 3, 1696, which said papers are printed at length, and answered paragraph by paragraph.	Friend, John, Sir, d. 1696.; Parkyns, William, Sir, 1649?-1696.	1696 (1696)	Wing L1751; ESTC R4716	20,332	16

have forgot that threatning of our Saviour that he will deny them before his Father and his Angels who deny him before Men otherwise you durst never have offered to Absolve Sir John Friend all his Sins without a Publick Repentance for his Publick Denial of that which to you and him is the Cause of God and Religion You make Sir John to say in the next place PAPER The cause I am brought hither to suffer for I do firmly believe to be the Cause of God and true Religion and to the best and utmost of my Knowledg and Information agreeable to the Laws of the Land which I have evermore heard do require a firm Duty and Allegiance to our Soveraign and that as no Forreign so neither any Domestick Power can alienate our Allegiance ANSWER Now Gentlemen It is manifest that the Cause for which Sir John suffered was his accepting of a Collonels Commission from the late King his agreeing to invite him over with a French Popish Army his Promising to Joyn him with two Hundred Horse for his own Part chusing inferiour Officers for his own Regiment and paying out Mony for their subsistance and therefore if Sir John did firmly believe that this Cause and the Cause of God and Religion were one and the same it was plainly that which Divines call Casus Confessionis wherein all good Christians cannot without Horrour do any otherwise than Answer in the Affirmative so that instead of his shameful denial of the thing and solemn Protestations of his Innocence as to the matters charg'd upon him he ought to have own'd it in the Face of the Court and to have told them boldly with the Heroick Courage of the Primitive Christians that he did firmly believe it to be the Cause of God and Religion whereof he stood Indicted and that he rejoyced to be counted worthy to suffer for the same But Gentlemen we shall come yet closer to the Point and make it Evident that both you and your pretended Martyr have basely betray'd that which you call the Cause of God and Religion Sir John at his Tryal did prove it by many Witnesses that he frequented the Publick Worship and attended the Prayers in his own Family where King William was pray'd for which was certainly a piece of the greatest Hypocrisy that any Man could be guilty of for if Sir John did firmly believe that King James's Cause was the cause of God as his paper pretends he did it was certainly a mocking of the Almighty to his very face to Countenance Prayers himself for that which was against his own Cause And your pretending to absolve that wretched Criminal without a publick Repentance for having so publickly disown'd and seemingly pray'd against that which you and he did firmly believe to be the cause of God proclaims you Traytors to Heav'n as well as to our Country but Gentlemen to make it as easy for you as the case will beat King William has no reason to be angry with you for not obliging Sir William Perkins to express his sorrow for being concerned in the horrid design of Assassinating his Royal person before you pronounc'd your absolution over him seeing you did also absolve Sir John Friend without any profession of Publick Repentance for having Renounced the cause of God Gentlemen I shall only add on this head that you and the rest of the absolving fraternity seem really to have acquir'd as much Dominion over the Consciences of your Disciples as is falsely ascribed to the Pope by those who worship the Beast viz. That he can make Vice Vertue and Vertue Vice otherwise those poor deluded Creatures could never be so stupid as to think they suffered for the cause of God when they are actually punish'd for endeavouring to bring in a French Power to establish a Prince on the Thone who during the whole Tenor of his Life hath shown himself an Irreconcileable Enemy to the Protestant Religion appear'd at the head of an horrid Plot against it when a subject and endeavouring its subversion when a Soveraign contrary to his Coronation Oath As to Sir John's Knowledge and Information of the Laws of the Land It was very well known and appear'd at his Trial to be so very little that if his Father Confessors had consulted either his Credit or their own they would certainly have struck out this part of his Paper but that our Laws require a firm Allegiance to our Soveraign and assert that no Forreign or Domestick power can alienate our Allegiance I believe Sir John might have ventured to swear it tho he had never seen a Statute-Book For the Question is not whether we own unalienable Allegiance to our Soveraign but whether or not one who has been our Soveraign can forfeit his Title to our Allegiance which I am sure considering Sir John's Education and Qualification was a question too knotty for him to resolve And therefore Gentlemen Absolvers the following propositions are recommended to your Consideration viz. That all Lawful Soveraigns have either their Commission from God or the People or to speak better sense God and the Peoples Commission to their Soveraign is or ought to be one and the same Gods Commission to the Soveraign both in the Old and New Testament is to encourage the Good and to punish and be a Terror to the Evil doers as appears from Deut. 17. 15. c. and Rom. 13. 1. c. And certainly the Commission of all people who are not fitter for Bedlam and Bridewell than humane Society is that the King should make use of his Authority for the benefit and preservation of the Community over whom he is constituted Soveraign so that if he either invert his Commission or Act contrary thereunto by encouraging the Bad and afflicting the Good and declares that he will continue to do so it 's plain that in so doing he neither Acts by the Authority of God nor the Authority of the People and that when they resist him as Acting thus they do not resist Authority but only the Extravagancies of an Usurper and that if God shall think fit to Claim the forfeiture of his Commission either by his own immediate hand as by Frenzy or any other Moral incapacity or m●diately by the Representatives of the joyned people he becomes thereby ipso facto divested of all Right to our Allegiance Which I think is plain from this familiar instance If an Husband violate the Marriage-Contract and upon his Resolution of continuing to do so his Wife sue out a Divorce let him pretend what he will he has no further Right to the Duty of a Wife from the injured Matron nor can she be said to be guilty of Disobedience to her Husband in refusing it but doth justly forsake him as a Divorc'd Adulterer Or to be yet more plain you may take it thus That whatever Prince refuses to Govern according to God's Commission has no positive Divine Right to Govern at all and by Consequence the people are

Forswear the Cause of his Sufferings before the Court at his Trial How is it possible then that he should have so shamefully denied it for fear of Suffering if he had really found so much Satisfaction in his Sufferings as here you make him express Or is it supposable if it had been so that the very remembrance of his having so unworthily Disown'd the Cause of his Sufferings wherein he had found so much Satisfaction should not have melted him into Tears and Contrition and made him Glorifie God and Redeem the Honour of the Cause by testifying a Publick Sorrow for his Weakness in Denying it Sure I am Gentlemen this was St. Peter's Practice who made his Repentance as Publick as his Denial of his Master and seeing St. John says That his Cause was that of God and Religion his denial of it was as gross as that of St. Peter's but you don't make it appear that Sir John's Repentance was any thing like that Blessed Apostles God knows whether these be the Words of your Martyr or not but supposing they are we can look upon them as no other than the effect of those Delusions with which you had possest his Soul and that they were put into his Mouth on purpose to strengthen your declining Cause In the belief of which I am the more confirm'd by the assurance I have that one of your number told him with an unwarrantable Confidence when he mounted from the Sledge to the Cart That the next step was to Heaven which Gentlemen if you do really believe to be so it s a loss to the Nations as well as to your selves that there are so many of your Party who have not yet taken the first Step. PAPER And so O Lord into thy Hands I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of Truth And I do heartily and humbly beseech Thee Almighty God and my most Gracious Father to forgive and bless this Sinful Nation Deliver it from the Guilt of Rebellion Blood and Perjury that is now on all sides more than ever and from all those other hainous Sins which cry aloud Preserve and Bless this Church Comfort our Distressed King Restore him to his Right and his Misled Subjects to their Allegiance Bless also his Royal Consort our Gracious Queen Mary his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales That he may grow in Stature and in Favour with God and Man Support and Strengthen all those that suffer in any kind for a good Cause give them Patience under all their Afflictions and a happy Deliverance out of them Forgive all mine Enemies Pardon my former neglect and remissness in Religious Worship and holy Duties and all the Sins I have been guilty of to this very moment Consider my Contrition Accept my Tears And now Thou art pleased to take me hence take me into thy Favour and grant that my Soul may be without spot presented unto Thee through the Merits of thy most dearly Beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen ANSWER Gentlemen We have heard of those who Fast for Strife and Debate and I think it may be said without breath of Charity that this Paper was Penn'd and put into the Hands of the poor Criminal for no other end You had taught him Lies in the Name of God and now you put Lies in his Mouth for a Prayer to the Almighty Is it possible that you can hold up your Faces to God and call that a Rebellion which all the Protestants of Europe besides your own inconsiderable Crew do look upon as a Lawful War pour out their Prayers daily to the God of Heaven for its Success and Blessed be his Name not without gracious Returns Have you so little observed the Course of Providence as to accuse that Prince as an Usurper on whose Family Heaven seems to have Entail'd it to be the Champions of the Protestant Religion and the Liberties of Europe Do you think your selves better Casuists then all other Reform'd Divines who do universally approve his procedure as agreeable to the Laws of God And is your Judgment in State Matters so great that you will venture to tell Heaven that this is a Rebellion which most of the Soveraigns in Europe and their Counsels do approve as agreeable to the Laws of Nations In short Gentlemen your peevish Ecclesiasticks have assumed a Power to themselves as great as ever was claim'd by the Pope and his Conclave For you can Absolve Men from their Sins without Repentance and Bind that upon the Consciences of your Disciples as Law and Gospel which is directly contrary to the Tenor of both But to return to your Prayer Is it not enough that you Arraign your Country as Rebels at the Bar of Heav'n but you must also pray for the Establishment of a Succession of Popish Princes which must needs be attended with the Ruine of our Religion And will no other terms serve you to pray for our Counterfeit Prince of Wales without Profaning what was said of the Blessed Child Jesus Is that the Reverence which you pay to his Name But it s true Gentlemen you make your Criminal act like himself He own'd at his Trial that he us'd to mock Heaven in his life time by praying for K. William when he thought K. James's Cause to be the Cause of God and now you make him also to mock Heaven at his Death by praying that God would Establish a Race of Prince's amongst us whom the Poor Man confess'd must by their Principles think they merit Heaven by destroying Protestants God preserve these Nations from such a Generation of Scribes Pharisees and Hypocrites as are the Tribe of Absolvers One thing I had almost forgotten to observe viz. That Sir John by his own Confession to the Committee of both Houses of Parliament made void his Exception as to the Truth of the Evidence given in against him by the Roman Catholick Witnesses and hath made it appear that whatever Latitude they may allow themselves in their Evidence against Protestants as such that yet they may be very good Witnesses against those who take Indirect Methods to support a Popish Cause whether they be Papists or Protestants and as it was well replied by the Kings Council to Sir John their being Evidence in such a Case will be one of the last things that the Priests will Absolve them for Sir WILLIAM PARKYNS's Paper IT hath not been my custom to use many words and I shall not be long upon this Occasion having Business of much greater Consequence to employ my thoughts upon I thank God I am now in a full disposition to Charity and therefore shall make no Complaints either of the Hardships of my Trial or any other Rigours put upon me However one circumstance I think my self obliged to mention it was Sworn against me by Mr. Porter That I had own'd to him that I had Seen and Read a Commission from the King to Levy War upon the Person of the Prince of Orange Now

Acquiesce in especially in a Case so clear as ours when the Prince exceeded the Boundaries of his Commission both from God and Man endeavoured the Subversion of our Laws and Religion the Destruction of the Good and the Incouragement of the Bad things Diametrically opposite to the End of Magistracy And this I think enough to make it evident that the Church for which you make Sir John Friend to have been a Martyr and a Sufferer is none of that Church which was built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles and that by consequence it 's no Sin to be a Separatist from it PAPER Though I have a perfect Charity for People of all Pr●fessions and do heartily wish Well and would endeavour so to do to all my Fellow Subjects of what Perswasions so ever and indeed I have met with a great deal of Vprightness and Sincerity among some People of very different Opinions in Religious Matters And I hope and desire it may not be taken as an Vncharitable Censure or undue Reflection That I objected to the Legality of Popish Evidence being advis'd so to do for my better Security upon the Foundation of a Statute Law ANSWER Charity is better manifested by Actions than Words and truly Gentlemen you will have much ado to perswade the World that there can be any thing of Charity in your Design and Sir John's to involve your Protestant Brethren in Three Nations in Blood and Ruine and to endanger the Protestant Interest all over Europe by countenancing a French Invasion And if it were not Ignoble to rake into the Actions of the Dead there are many of your Martyr's Actions which might be instanced that favoured nothing of perfect Charity But the design of this part of the Paper is obvious viz. That you and your Martyr may do all that you can to conciliate the good opinion of the Papists whom you and he are so very careful not to offend that he must die with an Apology to them in his Mouth but it seems it was not worth either of your whiles to make the least Apology for the offence which he had given to God and the Professors of the same Religion with himself by concealing the design of the horrid Assassination which his own Conscience told him was so great a Crime that he was very careful of having himself not so much as thought to be concerned in it but this I suppose he thought could be washt off by your Cheating Absolution and truely it had been more for the credit of your Cause to let this Apology alone too and put it upon the same score for it only aggravates his own Guilt and that of your party for if he had been a Man of any manner of Conscience he could not have reflected so in open Court upon the Religion of a Prince whose Restitution he esteem'd the Cause of God and Religion and if he did really believe what he said in his Defence That Papists think they Merit Heaven by destroying Protestants his Conscience must needs have told him if he was really a Protestant that it could not then be his duty to endeavour the Restitution of such a Prince who thought such a Work Meritorious and had indeed acted as if he did firmly believe so both before and after his Coming to the Throne which is certainly inconsistent with the very end of Government as well as with the Coronation-Oath by which he was Sworn to Govern us But notwithstanding all the precaution you have taken to have it thought that those Principles are only an Uncharitable Imputation upon the Papists that Character will cleave to them as being founded upon better ground than your Martyrs Assertion which considered in its self is indeed none at all so that his Vindication of 'em is of as little weight as 't was possible for the Vindication of any Man to be PAPER Having own'd my self a Member of the Church of England I must take this Opportunity and I do it for God's Glory to apply my self to you that are Royalists of that Church and of the same Faith and Principles with my self And I beg of you for God's sake and the love of your Souls to be very constant and serious in all Religious Offices and holy Duties of Divine Worship and Service which I have too much neglected as I own to my great Sorrow Let no Excuse no Dangers prevent or hinder you in these most necessary and serious Matters and be I beseech you very careful and circumspect in all your Actions Behaviour and Conversation as I earnestly exhorted all that came to me ANSWER This is a piece of extraordinary application and concerns the Honour of the Church of England so much that surely the Governing part of it are obliged to think of a Grateful Reward to the Absolvers for telling the World that those of the Church of England are Divided in their Faith and Principles for it seems some of them are of Sir John Friends Faith and Principles and others are not Sir John's Faith we have heard is that to Restore K. James by a Popish French Army is the Cause of God and Religion and in truth if there be any part of the Church of England of his Mind they must be the Children of the Bond-woman and are fitter to be sent to the Wilderness then entertain'd in the Bosom of the Church Your Martyr in stead of Royalists should have plainly said Jacobites seeing others are for Kingly Government as well as your Party But this is not the only thing wherein his partiality appears for as he will allow none but Jacobites the Name of Royallists so he Addresses his Exhortation to none but them which is no great Argument of his Perfect Charity but the Matter I suppose would not bear it for we must understand this Exhortation to be a Perswasive to Jacobite Conventicles there being now no danger to hinder any Man's performance of Divine Duty and Worship except Sir John understood those Unlawful Meetings and no others to be such For the other part of his Exhortation I shall only say That your Martyr ought to have given better Satisfaction of his own Repentance before he could reasonably suppose that his Exhortation could have any weight upon others PAPER I have I thank God a great deal of Satisfaction in my present Sufferings and have found it so ever since I have been under them And blessed be God it doth continually increase upon me And I do now lay down my Life with all Chearfulness and Resignation in sure and certain Hope of a Resurrection to Eternal Life through our Lord Jesus Christ through whose Merits alone I hope for the Pardon of my Sins and the Salvation of my Soul ANSWER Gentlemen I cannot but express my apprehensions of your Gross Hypocrisie in this last Article And I am confident that it will appear very evident by the following Reflections Don't you know that your Martyr did not only disown but in a manner