Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	act_n	sin_n	will_n	1,889	5	6.7849	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86729	Digitus testium, or A dreadful alarm to the vvhole kingdom, especially the Lord Major, the aldermen, and the Common-Councel of the City of London. Or a short discourse of the excellency of Englands lawes and religion. Together, with the antiquity of both, and the famous Kings that England hath had to defend both the religion and the laws against the heathen Romish emperours, and against the Romish power, under Popes. With the several plots the Popes of Rome have used against the Kings of England, to throwe them down, and how of late he hath prevailed against the magistracy and ministery of England, his new designes, and manner of progress: together, with a serious view of the new oath or ingagement, with 22. queries upon the same. And also objections made against the non-subscribers thereof answered. Let the ingenuous reader take so much pains, as to read that incomparable peece of vindication of a treatise of monarchy by way of discovery of three main points thereof.	Hall, Henry, d. 1680, attributed name.; Hall, Edmund, 1619 or 20-1687, attributed name.	1651 (1651)	Wing H339A; Thomason E621_13; ESTC R206419	34,005	37

of an immediate call to the contrary by revelation from God As Abraham was call'd to kill his son Isaac which was against a naturall precept yet having an immediate call from God had not God stayed his hand he might have lawfully done it because he that commanded Abraham so to do was the Lord and maker of the Law which he can dispense with But this case cannot be ours under the Gospel because God hath given us his revealed will in writing since which immediate revelations have ceased in the Gospel Churches there being no need of them at all Now as for the Providentiall acts of God or his revealed decrees these are no rules for us to walk by nor follow any otherwise then they concur with the revealed will of God in his precepts We bring a case shall make good this assertion and stop the mouthes of all rationall antagonists In the 1 King 11. 29. to v. 39. there was that decree revealed to Jeroboam by the prophet Ahijah who exactly revealed Gods intentions to give to him ten of the twelve Tribes and the house of David but two Judah and sickly Benjamin scarce worth the mentioning as a Tribe it was so small God reveals the reason to him why he did it viz for idolatry and forsaking the true God This v. 37. donation of Gods to Jereboam is repeated again to him that God would choose him and give him a vast power over the people to do and reign as his heart could desire Here if ever a man might have pleaded Providence and have urged the revealed decree of God for attempting treason against Solomon certainly if in any case or person it had not been rebellion in him to attempt that which Providence had decreed him Nor rebellion in Israel to have subjected to him whom God had declared to be their king But Jereboam in following the revealed decree of God contrary to a moral precept of God viz the fifth Commandment which injoyneth Subjects and inferiors to submit to their lawfull superiors for this very cause he is set down in the word of God as a Rebell against Solomon 1 King 11. 26. there he is put in the rear of the worst of the enemies of the Crown and royall family of Israel and stigmatized with this infamous mark of a Rebell for v 26. Jereboam the son of Nebat an Ephrathite of Zereda Sauls servant even he lift up his hand against the King and the cause of this his rebellion is set forth in the rest of the following Chapter because God had revealed his decree concerning the punishing of the Royall Family for their sin in giving him ten of the Tribes This revealed will of God was so far from justifying his acting against a morall precept that his actions are set forth hanging as it were on Hamans gallows expressed in the terms of the highest treason twice together He lift up his hand against the King he lift up his hand against the king Nor are the ten Tribes lesse excusable who subjected to Jereboam for though they might have pleaded self preservation and if they had not revolted they had all been undone and the providence of God who would have it so who had decreed it so and revealed those decrees to them by a Prophet these might not be resisted yet these ten Tribes notwithstanding for their rejecting of the visible and lawfull Authority and supremacie of the kingdome are twice branded in holy Chronicles for Rebels 1 King 12. 19. Israel rebelled against the house of David And 2 Chron. 10. 19. Israel rebelled against the house of David So that it is manifest that following of Providence is so far from being a Christians duty that many times it is a desperate sin and therefore it was that holy David when he might have cut off Sauls head and when Providence had cast him into his hands he durst not walk by acts of Providence but by divine precepts which commanded him to do no murther He might have pleaded self-preservation and in killing him he had killed a publick Enemie and a murtherer But David had a better guide then Providence to direct him Witty and true was that expression of a pious and learned Divine If Joseph in Aegypt had followed Providence he had without doubt committed folly with his Mistris and have said Providence put him upon it We therefore conclude that acts of Providence are no rules for Christians to follow and it is so far from resisting of God the not being governed by them that many times it becomes a great sin as is evident by what hath been declared and the ten Tribes have this sin written in bloody characters upon their back untill this day for from Rebellion they turned to Idolatry and from that day forward they sank deeper and deeper into misery untill they lost their Religion Laws liberties and Nation which judgement remains upon them untill this day God having hanged them in Gibbets to teach Posterities after them to take heed of their sins viz of following Providence against a Precept Ob. But how comes it to passe that they that make a scruple of subscribing this Ingagement yet make no scruple of paying taxes Is not such a subjection an acknowledgement of their Authority and do they not condemne themselves in doing one and not the other A. We will not undertake to give the fullest Answer hereunto yet we hope a satisfactory Answer we shall be able to give 1. We therfore say that we that do pay taxes do make scruples of paying them and were we not inslaved should much more expresse our selves 2. Paying of taxes doth not imply a not scrupling of the authority that demands and exacts them A man may pay his money to a thief yet not acknowledge that authority to be just 3. Taxes that are now imposed are extorted and not voluntarily payed and as to that a power is usurped over mens estates as if the Nation were compleatly conquered Now in such a case we conceive our selves meerly passive and no way active at least free from any spontaneous act Now this is far from acknowledging the iustness and lawfulness of the supremacie of such a Power t is one thing to be inforced to a subjection in person and estate and quite another thing to acknowledge that power which usurps this authority to be supreme and legall which the Ingagement absolutely inforceth upon the Subscribers But let the world judge from this Objection how cruel and tyrannical that Government is that when the poore Protestants shall be content to submit to most grievous taxes for quietnesse sake yet this is not sufficient unlesse they will subject their souls and insnare them also in unreasonable and cruell bondage Is it not sufficient for the paying of taxes bearing of Free-quarter and suffering many afflictions to purchase that which in no age was ever denyed our freedom but we must be cut-lawed accounted the off-scouring of the world and exposed to the cruelty of merciles

all the World and their damnation sleepeth not be not found amongst the number of Hypocrites Apostates Atheists and Papists persecuting the poor Church the sword is put into your hand for the preservation not for the persecution of a godly zealous Ministery The God of all wisdom direct you for the Churches good and his glory for which ends we dedicate these our Papers to you A short Discourse of the excellency of Englands Laws and Religion c. IT is not unknown to us the Free-born Protestants of England that our Nation claimeth the priority of all other Nations in the World for ancient and famous Laws and Peace and Religion The Laws and Customs of England saith Learned Fortescus are ancienter then the Laws of the Romans yea of the Venetians which are esteemed the ancientest in the World they are more famous then others because better then the Laws of other Nations and that in a threefold respect in the subject matter in the form and 3. in the disposing of them The ras substrata of the statute Laws of England is reason which indeed is the totum compositum of the common Law Common Law is a vast mine of right reason out of which all other Laws are digged and fitly squared to the good of the Kingdom he therefore is esteemed the best Lawyer that spoke the best reason and herein the People of England excel all other Nations in that they are only subjected by the Law to reason and the purest reason which to be is doubtless perfect freedom yea it may truly be affirmed that by the Law they are subjects only to divine reason for we have such a standing Law upon record that whatsoever Custom maxim or Statute shall be faind directly contrary to the Law of God that Custom Maxim Statute or Case shall be ipso facto void and so adjudged And as for the matter for the form the Laws of England are the absolute and undoubted best in the World for as there is universal obedience required and injoyned to every Law inacted for there is a general assent in the acting and constitution of that Law There are 3. estates which concur as joynt causes of the same effect in making of a Law These 3. Conjunctions do make the supreme Authority of the Nation the Apax or Culmen potestatis being set upon the Kings head all Writs and procession issuing out in his name with him are joyned the House of Lords and the House of Commons these 3. divisions are limitted by Law but compunction they have power to repeal or make a Law and none can say unto them why do you so but either of these apart are limitted by Law Limitations of royal power have been made and acknowledged by Magna Charta and several other acts and no obedience acknowledged any otherwise then according to Law and King Charles acknowledged that the measure of his power was the Law and he desired no more then what he was invested with by Law And so of the other two estates of Lords and Commons these three have negative voices alike have freedom in their several places a like freedom to make motions and freedom to reject what they dislike This is the absolutest best Government in the World as is clear from God and Nature God himself who is the Almighty Monark of all Spirits hath pleased to reveal himself to Man in a Trinity of persons and governs the universe by himself Angels and Men Celestical Bodies by Sun Moon and Stars the little World Man by understanding will and affections and the Kingdom of England by King Lords and Commons The King of himself cannot make a Law of himself if he do t is tyranny nor the Lords in a part by themselves nor the Commons by themselves against the other two if they do it is usurpation exceeding presumption perjury and Treason for they are sworn to the contrary by their Oaths of allegiance and supremacy to act nothing against the Crown and Dignity of their Soveraign Lord the King besides they are sworn to maintain the Priviledges of Parliament The King makes the first of these three Estates by a right which is not by election nor by Conquest simply but by inheritance for the Saxon Kings laying the plat-form of good Government here in England continued it succesfully until the Danes drove them into Corners subduing them for a time the which they soon recovered again and so recovered their ancient Customs and Laws again and continued them Edward the Confessor who was of the Saxon line having no Heir descending of his body intended to make Edgar Ethling Gran-child to Ironside his successor but Edward the Confessor dying Harrold-Earl Godwins Sonne being popular for his Victories usurped the Crown and dispossessed the right Heir deluding William of Normandy to whom he had promised by Oath the Government of the Kingdom after the death of Edward William Duke of Normandy hereupon pleads a right to the Crown of England by promise as he said from Edward the Confessor and hereupon brought an Army with him from Normandy and gave battel to Harold the Usurper at Hastings in Sussex where he overthrow'd him by whose overthrow there was way made for a Treaty betwixt Duke William and the Nobles and Citizens then at London Duke William pleaded his right by promise as having a grant of the Kingdom made to him by Edward the Confessor and confirmed by Harrold who forswore himself and usurped the Crown hereupon Duke William was received and acknowledged King by the Nobles and City of London after this Edgar Ethling who indeed was the right Heyr compounded with Duke William and for a royal allowance which Duke William granted him he reconciled himself to him and thus William came in as Successour to Edward the Saxon King and so it succeeded from the Normans to the Plantagenets Henry the 2. being the Sonne of Maud Henry the 1. his Daughter whom he married to Jeffery Plantagenet who begat Henry the 2. and so it passed from the Normans to the Plantaginets in whose unquestionable time eight Kings succeeded each other afterwards they divided Henry the 4 of the younger house usurped the Crown being of the house of Lancaster but Edward the 4. of the house of York coming in upon a better Title then those of Lancaster overthrew those that opposed his Title this Division continued and lived until Richard the 3. died who breathed the last of the Plantagenets The Tudors next succeeded the Plantagenets Henry the 7. matching with Elizabeth the eldest Daughter to Edward the 4. of the house of York united both houses of York and Lancaster laying the white Rose and the red together in the royal person of Henry the 7. the Scepter fell back into the Current of the old brittish blood together with the German Norman Burgandian Castalian and French atchievements with the intermarriages which 800 years had acquired incorporated and brought back into the old royal time