Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bring_v	great_a	king_n	3,018	5	3.5536	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59880	A sermon preach'd before the Honourable House of Commons, at St. Margaret's Westminster, January the xxxth, 1691/2 by William Sherlock ...	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1692 (1692)	Wing S3350; ESTC R21693	11,547	38

must reside in the Estates of the Realm for if at any time there be no Power in the Nation the Government is dissolved The Estates upon this great Exigency of Affairs assembled but did not pretend the Superior Authority of the People over Kings and their Power to judge depose and punish them but they only undertook to judge what properly falls under their Cognizance in such cases and what now lay before them whether the Throne were vacant and if it were how it must be filled And when those who were the sole and proper Judges of this Case had once determined it private Subjects according to the fundamental Reasons of all Governments were bound to acquiesce whatever their private Opinions were or else such State-disputes can never be determined but we must necessarily dissolve into Anarchy and Confusion Where there is no determination of the Law of Nature or of the Law of God against it as there is none about meer legal Rights the Resolutions of Government must determine the Consciences of private Subjects for the Power of Judging must extend as far as the just Power of governing does So that whatever dispute there may be about other Matters the late Revolution has made no alteration at all in the Principles of Government and Obedience It does not oblige us to own the Superior Power of the People over the King which would be a very tottering Foundation for Monarchy and could never support it long Those who believed the Doctrine of Non-resistance and Passive Obedience to be a good Doctrine before may think so still and be never the less Friends to the present Government and I have often thought it a wonderful Providence of God that in an Age wherein the strictest Loyalty and Obedience had been so earnestly pressed on Men so great a Revolution should be brought about while the generality of Subjects were meerly passive and surprized into a Deliverance But it is quite otherwise in the present Case the horrid Fact committed on this Day has poyson'd the very Springs and Fountains of Government and so deeply tinctured Mens Minds that I pray God we may not still live to see and feel the miserable Effects of it For when Men sit loose in their Obedience without the Restraint and Ties of Conscience nothing but Power can keep the disjoynted and incoherent Parts of such a Government together they are a fluid Body like the Sea which every breath of Wind puts into a new Disturbance and Commotion Especially when a Nation is already divided into Parties and Factions both in Church and State which are acted with a furious and restless Zeal and will be satisfied with nothing less than to be uppermost which is another Mischief our late unnatural War has left behind it Those bitter Animosities are not yet forgot nay they daily revive again and our old Quarrels are acted over with a new Zeal This is not only an uneasie but a very dangerous State for any movernment when there are two or three or more Parties in any Nation which contend to be uppermost and to oppress the others and are resolved to dislike and to misrepresent what the others do When a Name shall make common Friends and common Enemies and few Men have any regard to the Publick good if it be against the Interest of their Party Nay when good Success is grievous to them if they have not been the chief Actors in it and they are well pleased with the greatest and most irreparable Miscarriages if they give them any advantage over their Rivals though the Nation is in danger to be undone by them What difficulties does this impose upon a Prince when it is dangerous to choose any side and yet impossible to be thought of none These are some of those Evils which our own Sins and the just Judgments of God have brought upon us And when shall we see an end of these things When shall Peace and Righteousness and Truth take up their Habitation among us When will God return in Mercy Heal the Breaches of our Sion and Build up her Walls Now is the time if ever heartily to endeavour heartily to Pray for this That God would make us glad according to the days wherein he hath afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen Evil. 3. Which is the third part of my Text which I can but name Now in order to this God has done a great deal for us already if we will do any thing for our selves God hath advanced such Princes to the Throne whom we beseech him long to continue preserve and prosper there as seem on purpose fitted by Nature by Education by Religion by Interest to accomplish this glorious Work We have a King who was always in the Interest of his Country whose great Mind knows no greater Glory then to be a publick Benefactor to be a Patron to the Injured and Oppressed and to break the Chains and Fetters prepared for Europe A King who knows how to Govern a free People who knows the price of Liberty and what a value Mankind have for it A King who was never Personally concerned in any of our Quarrels and therefore has no Personal Resentments brings no Spirit of Revenge no Spirit of a Party to the Throne with him A King and Queen who by Education Principle and Interest are professed Enemies to Popery and the great Defence and Support of the Protestant Cause at home and abroad who teach and encourage Piety and Vertue by Their Examples as well as Laws and maintain and defend the Worship and Government of the Church of England and at the same time endeavour to soften and temper Mens passions with Ease and Liberty and God grant we may see the good effects of it for Liberty unless wisely used seldom proves a kindness even to those who have it So that all the old Complaints are redressed all the plausible Pretences for Faction are silenced by the Advancement of Their Majesties to the Throne Here is no appearing Danger of an over-growing Power and illegal Usurpations no oppression of the Subjects in their Just Rights no divided Interest between Prince and People unless People will divide from a Prince who makes their Safety Happiness and Interest his own nay who purchases their Ease and Security with the endless Fatigues and Hazard of his own Sacred Person Here are no fears of Popish designs no pretence for former Clamours of Persecution for Conscience sake and what have the most dissatisfied Men to complain of but only the pressing Necessities of Affairs and such unavoidable Miscarriages as such Necessities will always occasion under the best Government in the World And why then should we not all unite in such Princes and forget all former Quarrels why should we still divide into Parties when the Throne is of no Party and will admit of none what are those grievances still to make party quarrels unless Monarchy and the Church of England be thought the only remaining