Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bishop_n	ecclesiastical_a	king_n	2,997	5	4.1467	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25568	An answer to several remarks upon Dr. Henry More, his expositions of the Apocalypse and Daniel, as also upon his Apology written by S.E. Mennonite, and published in English by the answerer ; whereunto are annexed two small pieces, Arithmetica apocalyptica, and Appendicula apocalyptica ...	S. E., Mennonite.; More, Henry, 1614-1687.	1684 (1684)	Wing A3379; ESTC R10256	245,076	439

Reader to understand them and perceive the truth and strength of them which is a pain to the generality of men even to many of them that pretend to be learned the minds of most being lax and desultorious slight and impenetrative and therefore what is most overly easie and superficial is the most generally rellished and applauded when things most true and solid are neglected because they require better parts and more pains by close attentiveness and comprehensiveness of mind to receive them But for the Dutch Annotatours that they should balk Mr. Mede's Interpretation of the Seals he that considers the Texture thereof and how it is complicated with the account he gives of the Vision of the four Beasts and four and twenty Elders with golden Crowns on their heads which he makes to represent the Bishops of those happy times there prefigured as Dr. More the Monarchs need no longer wonder that the Dutch Divines that live under a state that is neither Monarchical nor Episcopal should not be willing to admit that the best and most glorious times of the Church that are predicted in the Apocalypse should be Episcopal or Monarchical Which two orders are naturally linked together But now how necessarily Mr. Mede's Interpretation of the Seals is interwoven with that of the Vision of the four Beasts and four and twenty Elders is evident in that the Horsemen that appear upon the opening of the four first Seals come out of those four Quarters that respect the four living Creatures the East the Lion the West the Oxe the South the Man and the North the Eagle and in that order the four Beasts or living Creatures are reckoned From those Quarters I say and in that order do the Riders of the four Horses come Which answer to the Quarters and Ensigns of the Camp of Israel And the fit application of things here to History by Mr. Mede is admirable and enravishing and the Providence of God marvellously illustrated therein and a Reason obvious occurs why there are onely four Horsemen in the opening of the Seals viz. for that there are no more Beasts to point at the quarters they come from than four in the precedent Vision which whole Vision as I said alludes to the Camp of Israel But let the Reader peruse the Interpretation of the fourth and sixth Chapters of the Revelation in Mr. Mede or at least in Dr. More and so judge But now for the autority of judicious Mr. Durham whom the Annotatour chuseth to follow rather than Mr. Mede who yet undoubtedly much better deserves that Encomium than the other party Let Mr. Durham be as judicious as the Annotatour pleases when he is free yet who can well assure us that favour to a Faction and his affection for the Scotch Presbytery for even his speech and style bewray him has not blinded his judgment in this matter Indeed before Mr. Mede had blest the World with his excellent Interpretation of that Vision Apoc. 4. of the Divine Majesty sitting on his Throne and of the four Beasts and four and twenty Elders sitting on Thrones round about him and of the opening the first six Seals chap. 6. for Interpreters to have fumbled in these things might be a less sign of want of judgment But for one now when he had so fair a copy before him to interpret chap. 4.4 the four and twenty Elders not so much as of any Officers or Guides but of private professours though they are said to sit on Thrones to be cloathed in white soft raiment such as either belongs to the Priesthood or to Kings houses and to have golden Crowns on their heads which in the Apocalypse often occurs and always signifies Political Sovereignty and Dominion not Spiritual or Moral What is this a sign of but of a clouded judgment much blinded by a disgust against either Monarchy or Episcopacy The proof that he would bring from the Song of the four Beasts and Elders chap. 5.9 10. makes against him For whereas they are there said to reign upon the Earth the four Beasts indeed as well as the four and twenty Elders are equally there concerned in that spiritual reign but if that was the onely reason either all must have Crowns or none must have Crowns otherwise Crowns here must of necessity denote either Christian Monarchs or Christian Bishops It cannot be avoided But in that it is said chap. 4.9 10. And when those Beasts give glory the four and twenty Elders fall down before him and hence there is gathered that the four Beasts are the Ministers of the Gospel What a preposterous business is this to make those that wear Crowns to be private persons and those that have no Crowns to be Rulers and Governours in the Church Besides that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a good sense as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a bad both according to the Prophetick style signifie a body Politick And these four Beasts undoubtedly allude to the four quarters of the Camp of Israel as also may the four and twenty Elders to the twenty four chief Priests or heads of the Families or courses of the Priests and Levites if Bishops be understood thereby But if as the Annotatour and his Guide Mr. Durham would have it from the Text that the Divine Worship is begun by the Beasts that is by some amongst them it implies that the four and twenty crowned Elders are the Monarchs and Sovereigns of Christendom who are not the leading Ministers or Priests in the Divine Worship though devoutly present at the same the Bishops themselves in counterdistinction to the Christian Sovereigns making part of the body of the people and therefore understood to take their place in that multitude of Subjects that make up the four Beasts And in the mean time though these Monarchs be no Bishops yet they being next under Christ in all causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil Supreme Heads and Governours they may be look't upon as so many Patriarchs as well as Kings or Patres Patriae that is to say Fathers of their Country This sense of Mr. Mede or the Doctour is easie and clear but that of Mr. Durham unless we will make symbols and words signifie any thing or nothing incredible nay impossible Wherefore Mr. Durham though called judicious by the Annotatour has in this matter forfeited his Title and his Autority therewithall Nor can it be a sufficient excuse nor indeed any for the Annotatour to have deserted Mr. Mede's way of expounding the Seals from the example of Mr. Iames Durham But to give the Annotatour his due he does not support himself onely by these Autorities but adds what he thinks is reason for his interpreting not onely the first six Seals but first six Trumpets also included in the seventh Seal of the affairs of the Church rather than of the Empire Because says he according to Mr. Mede's own interpretation not onely the first Seal but also the fifth and sixth too relate

in blind Enthusiastick Huffs and sudden Blasts that will tear all into Anarchy But we proceed Christ's Kingdom being spiritual says he the Kings and Rulers there will rule by a spiritual power Why so they will though it be such a Polity as I have described the Governours being endued with the Spirit of God and acting for the abovesaid spiritual ends and being autorized so to act by the Laws of Christ's Kingdom which their inward frame of spirit heartily closeth with and assures them of the truth and equity of them as also all the people of the New Ierusalem who will be found willing to subject themselves thereto in this day of Christ's power Is not this plainly and fully to act and rule by a spiritual power Nor does this ruling thus by a spiritual power presently make them Priests properly so called Christ is our King as well as our Priest And so there may be as well Spiritual Kings in his Millennial Empire as Priests according to the sense above declared they ruling and reigning in the same Christian spirit and for the same Spiritual ends that the Priests officiate for But to illustrate his meaning how they will be Priests he farther adds That they will be such as the twenty four Elders are to the four Beasts and such as they and the four Beasts will be to those they shall reign over But there is so much light in the Illustration that it discovers the darkness of his own errour For the description of the twenty four Elders is this chap. 4. That there were twenty four 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thrones and on these Thrones twenty four Elders in white raiment and there were golden Crowns on their Heads What can be more expressive of Kings than Thrones and golden Crowns and of holy and righteous Kings than the white raiment they are cloathed with Which in all likelihood is white silk which is called soft raiment in Matthew and said to be fit for Kings houses But that it is left indifferent it is the more capable of having some allusion to the Priesthood likewise but then with a complication of Holiness in these Millennial Kings that they had the power of Kings and the holiness of Priests and were supreme Heads of the Church in Ecclesiastick causes also in their own dominions For the Kings in these times will not be so blind as to be led by the nose by the Priests but see what is fitting themselves and accordingly approve of it and the Priests will easily appeal to them they themselves being faithfull also to the true end of Christ's Kingdom If these Kings were Priests properly so called or Kings properly so called were not here meant instead of golden Crowns on their Heads they would have had golden Girdles girding their white raiment Wherefore it is plain that the twenty four Elders are properly Kings in respect of the four Beasts But they are Kings onely over the four Beasts the four Beasts comprizing the whole Israel of God that is the whole Kingdom of Christ in the Millennium And therefore the four Beasts are Subjects nor are they Kings or Rulers over other people or Nations out of the Kingdom of Christ which is rashly and without ground asserted by the Remarker Wherefore the Remarker vainly insults over the Expositor in the following words And therefore to suppose as here is done that Monarchs or crowned Heads who rule by worldly power shall be Kings and Rulers c. This is to fly in the face of the very Text and pull the golden Crowns off the Heads of the four and twenty Elders For they are crowned Heads and reign and rule in Christ's Kingdom But that he may seem to have some wit in his wrath he would by crowned Heads understand such Monarchs as rule by worldly power But I have already demonstrated that the Monarchs in the Millennial Polity rule by a Spiritual power and that a Political and Spiritual Government are not terms inconsistent one with another nor need I again repeat it Whence it is manifest that the Remarker out of the ignorance of the state of Christ's Kingdom or something worse an affected singularity in high-flown Notions has erred in so material a point But he holds on to maintain it from that saying of our Saviour Luk. 22.25 which is the same with Mat. 20.25 but neither are any Reprehension of just Political Government which is managed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks Politic. lib. 3. cap. 7. but of that which Aristotle there calls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of any kind of Government as he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tyranny 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a digression from the Regal Power and defines it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Monarchy constituted for the good of the Monarch which with Aristotle's leave it should be but I suppose he means exclusively to the good of the publick 'T is this our Saviour blames if any thing here in Monarchy not Monarchy it self merely as Political But mainly he spoke this to upbraid the ignorance of those of his disciples that were ambitious of high places in his Kingdom here on Earth they foolishly conceiting they should have the pleasure and riches whereby they may be inabled to be gracious Benefactors and splendour of worldly Potentates This concerns the Apostles themselves and the succeeding Bishops which were to be Rulers of the Church and therefore is rather a prediction for them than any Prescription to secular Christian Monarchs that should be afterwards the Apostles I say this seems onely to concern and the succeeding Primitive Bishops who were to live in mean rank as to the condition of the world and to care and toil for the good of the Church and bear the brunt of all Persecutions as our Saviour himself dyed for his Church This is the genuine sense of those two places But for such a Monarch as really rules for the good of the Kingdom of Christ that those places any thing concern such a Political Government is a wonderfull groundless conceit and quite out of the Road of Truth As that which follows is either grosly false or impertinent For if he mean that Political Government simply in it self will make a Christian Ruler or a Ruler that professes Christianity rather the more completely Antichristian it is wretchedly false as may appear out of what has been said already But if he mean by Political Government Worldly Government which serves the ends of the World rather than of the Kingdom of Christ this is absolutely impertinent to the present point and contrary to the Hypothesis which is that these Millennial Monarchs rule by such a Political Constitution as best serves the promotion and conservation of Christ's Spiritual Kingdom and best sutes with the Regenerate spirits both of the Governours and Governed Which he keeping to though himself were unregenerate yet is he far from being Antichristian but as it 's said in lower matters Malus homo yet Bonus