Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A67555
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The proselyte of Rome called back to the communion of the Church of England in a private letter thought very fit and seasonable to be made publick.
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L. W.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing W81; ESTC R24582
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21,305
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34
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Licensed 〈◊〉 19. 78. W. JANE THE Proselyte of Rome CALL'D BACK TO THE COMMUNION OF THE Church of England IN A PRIVATE LETTER THOUGHT Very fit and seasonable to be made Publick To the ROMANS Cap. XI v. 20.22 Be not high minded but fear Otherwise Thou also shalt be cut off Apoc. II. 5. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do thy first works LONDON Printed for R. Clavell at the Peacock in St. Pauls Church-yard 1679. To the Reverend and Learned Author SIR SInce I had the honour and satisfaction of seeing your Papers I have blamed your delay in the publication of them especially being designed to recall a Romish Proselyte that was gone from the Communion of our Church they might in this unhappy and distracted Juncture have seasonably help'd towards the recovery of others whose temporal as well as eternal Interests make them as eager and desirous of satisfaction I know that Modesty is a vertue and Caution a very commendable thing but Charity and Love to the Souls of men is much more so You have lived to see the Church forlorn and desolate persecuted and seemingly forsaken and after a little respite and the hopes of settlement to be again threatned and menac'd with a final overthrow Psal 137.7 Down with it down with it even to the ground cry our Modern Edomites And when the Church did need the Aids of those who loved her we know she found your Zeal and Resolution and Courage in her service And that now you should flag when you are so well arm'd and prepar'd for Combat or be backward when her Adversaries are pecking at the very foundations with Axes and Hammers and striving to undermine her by Artifice or Violence And you a Champion so try'd and experienc'd and furnish'd to defend her I cannot imagine unless you are more tender than formerly and fear taking of harm by being exposed to the open Air. I think I have heard that the time has been Neh. 4.1 when like Nehemiah's Builders you wrought with one hand in the Churches service and with the other you hold a weapon for her defence and succour You know the Arguments that mov'd you then and what hinders but they should now prevail I am you see warm in the Churches cause nor do I believe that you are less concern'd But if I seem to reproach or lament your remissness in these seasonable Circumstances to send abroad your useful preparations let me not be thought rude or unmannerly because I hereby not only vindicate you from the common fault of being forward to print but likewise shew the high value I have for your Person and Papers and that I believe them to he very useful for the Publick benefit As to the Gentleman you design to reduce I only know him upon this occasion and therefore can say little of his Learning or Ingenuity or the Motives that made him depart from us But if after all your endeavours to convict him he still remains hard and untractable and refuseth to hear the voice of the charmer charm he never so wisely he must be let alone in the obstinacy of the deaf Adder and to our Prayers to soften him when your Arguments cannot alter him but when the World have seen your Papers and know that he has done so They 'l strain their Charity to suspect that something else besides the pretended advantage of Infallibility perswaded him to revolt and till he can answer your Arguments they 'l be apt to think that the exchange of Opinion was not for Faith but Fancy and that while he dreamed that he left uncertainty it was to be secure of nothing But if you should have that Friendly influence upon him by your pains and endeavours to call him back hee 'l by that Charity that is more Catholick than the Religion he leaves be glad that by his fall so great an advantage has been offer'd to the world and that others may be reduc'd thereby to the sober enquiry upon what bottom they trust their Salvation and see upon what slender and fickle grounds their Faith has been fixed And what those Grounds are all men will see when they peruse your Tractate Besides we have reason to thank such men as you for asserting the Churches cause in these Controversies For who now that is most freakish in folly and Enthusiasm has a front to say That the Sons of our Church are warp'd from what is Primitive and truly Orthodox or Factors for the Romish Interest or wish well to the promoting that Cause amongst us c Let us hear no more such outcries against the Church of England nor against those who are exact and punctual in the decent performance of Gods publick Worship and the circumstances of Order and Discipline For the gaudy Superstitions of Rome and Italy are more contemned by such men than the looser and more careless dress of Amsterdam and Geneva And you amongst many others have freed our Church from this whining unjust imputation in that you have not only shaken but everted that fundamental Principle upon the fall of which all the superstructure tumbles As to your Quotations they are so proper and peculiarly adapted to every period that you had very great luck to happen on the choice of them And for the Translations which your Charity suffer'd to be made of them for the use of your meaner and more unlearned Reader they I perceive were done by one whose skill in Grammar did exceed his sense in Theologie and Divine Controversies which may excuse them to the Criticks and men of brisker fancy However Translating is a very tedious task and so long as they are true and literal they are justifiable enough against the keenest and most snarling Censurers I am loth the Messenger should stay and therefore only wish your Reader may be impartial and considerative unprejudic'd and serious and that your Papers may convince and confirm him that they may have their design on the Gentleman you 'd recall and advance the interest of Truth and Goodness amongst all men that they may help to allay that bitterness and heal those Animosities and wild Conceits that trouble the Christian World and that all that see them may endeavour after the things that make for Peace Which is the Prayer of Sir Your faithful Servant Dec. 2. 1678. THE RELIGION OF THE Church of England c. IN A PRIVATE LETTER Sir SInce I have known you so long I am sorry I knew you no better I assure you I intended to treat you as an entire Friend but you wrest my words to a harsh construction For Mr. S he was so far from giving any partial account that he did not so much as positively say you had left our Communion I confess upon a vehement suspicion for which we had other grounds I took the freedom to tell you what would fall under every ordinary apprehension that your departure would unavoidably expose you unto censure That