Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	church_n	civil_a	ecclesiastical_a	2,893	5	8.1068	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51394	A sermon preached at the magnificent coronation of the most high and mighty King Charles the IId King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. : at the Collegiate Church of S. Peter Westminster the 23d of April, being S. George's Day, 1661 / by George Lord Bishop of Worcester.	Morley, George, 1597-1684.	1661 (1661)	Wing M2794; ESTC R204353	35,240	71

that it must needs be ill for the people in what sense soever they have many Princes whether it be by Cantoning the Countrey into parts or by sharing the Soveraignty of the whole either amongst many as in Aristocracy or amongst all as in a Democracy or amongst the Sword-men onely as in a Stratocracy or lastly by dividing the soul of the State from the Body the Church from the Common-wealth and by making two Soveraigns one in causes Civil and the other in causes Ecclesiastical over the same subjects whether the Conclave or the Consistory be the Cause of it In all which cases I say it is a Judgement of God upon a Nation to have more Princes then one as I hope I have made it appear both from the causes and effects of it But notwithstanding all the Evidence can be given of this truth either from Scripture or Reason from the Cause or the Effects of it we would not believe it till we felt it And therefore in the third place it hath pleased God because we vvere like beasts without understanding to teach us as he doth Beasts by our senses and to visit us of late as much or perhaps more then ever he did any nation vvith this very Judgement I mean plurality of Princes in all its kinds and degrees and vvith almost all the effects of it For after vve had said in our hearts Nolumus hunc regnare super nos I mean assoon as vve had rejected that EXCELLENT PRINCE who onely had right by all Lavves Humane and Divine to reign over us presently many of our fellovv subjects took upon them to be our Princes and to govern us arbitrarily at their ovvn pleasure in order to their own avaritious and ambitious ends And that first in an Aristocratical way as a Senate or Council of State wherein nothing could be done without consent of some of the Nobility and Gentry But it was not long after Royalty was gone but Nobility followed and was excluded also And then came in Democracy or the Government of the Common People by their own Representatives onely which encreased the number of our Princes and the vileness of our slavery by the meanness of our Masters But these their own Mercenaries did quickly deprive of the power they had Usurped and Abused And then came in Stratocracy or the Government by the Sword and thereby we had as many Princes as there were Bashaws or Major Generals who perhaps if they had out-liv'd their great Sultan they would have Canton'd the Kingdome and erected their several Provinces into so many several Principalities But by this means the very name of Liberty and property which were before pretended were quite taken away Onely there was liberty enough and too much indeed a Lawless boundless licence in matter of Religion all wayes of worshipping God being allowed but the true one and all admitted to the Sacred Function but such as were lawfully called unto it In the mean time every Sect had its head and every one that was head of a Sect was Prince of a Party so that we have seen what it is to have many Princes nay we have felt it to be a sore Judgement by the terrible effects of it which did spread themselves over the face and through the Veins and into the Bowels of the three Kingdomes at once embracing involving and confounding all places all persons and all conditions publick and private high and low sacred and prophane For from the King in his Throne to the Beggar in the dust no thing place or person almost hath been without feeling some or other the terrible effects of this Judgement How many have lost their Limbs their Liberty their Country their estates their friends and have been reduced to extream poverty both at home and abroad How many noble and Ancient Families have been ruin'd How many goodly buildings and Churches the glorious evidences and Monuments of our Ancestors Piety and charity have been prophaned and defaced How many poor innocent persons of both sexes all ages and all conditions have been either murther'd or banish'd or imprison'd or oppress'd with extortion of all kinds and of all Degrees without possibility of help or hope of remedy Lastly how many poor souls for which Christ dyed have been betrayed into Rebellion and Sacriledge Schism and Heresie Uncharitableness and Cruelty by the horrible abuse of Preaching Praying Fasting Vowing and all other the sacred ordinances of God And now if our poor Country when she felt these painfull strugglings and Convulsions within her bowels should have ask'd as Rebecca did when she felt Esau and Jacob striving within her womb If it be so why am I thus There could no other reason be given her for it but this in my Text It was for her Transgression it was for the Transgression of the Land it was for our National sins of Atheism of Profaneness of Sacriledge of Hypocrisie of Idleness of Gluttony or Drunkenness of uncleanness of Pride of Heresie together with our prevarication against God or our treacherous dealing with God in pretending to serve him best when we dishonour'd him most nay in pretending to serve him when we intended to serve our selves of him by making use of his Name his Word and his Ordinances in order to the pal●iating promoting and effecting our own ungodly and unrighteous designs These I say were our National sins and by these or some of these we have all of us contributed to the provocation of this Judgement So that they were not the sins of the Court onely nor of the City onely nor of the Countrey onely nor of any one particular order of men whether Clergy or Laity and much less of any one particular man or party of men that we can say were singly and abstractedly the cause of our Calamities no it was too great too universal to be the effect of little or few Provocations they were therefore the sins of the whole Nation the sins of All and every One of us which rising up as a Cloud from us fell down again in a showre of Judgements upon us so that there is not one of us to whom it may not truly be said Perditio tua ex te Thou hast deserved whatsoever thou hast suffer'd For if the best of us had been as good as we might and ought to have been it would not have been in the power of the worst of us to have made us so miserable as we were Indeed if all of us had not rebelled against God none of us would have Rebelled against the King at least their Rebellion would not have prospered as it did and consequently the Soveraignty would never have been shared amongst so many as it was Which as at first it was the effect of our sins so it hath been ever since the cause of our Miseries And as the Consideration of the former namely that our having of many Princes was an effect of the sins of us all or of our National sins will