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	england_n	king_n	3,792	5	4.0738	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61180	A sermon preach'd before the right honourable Sir Henry Tulse, Lord Mayor, and the Court of Aldermen, and the citizens of the city of London, on May the 29th, 1684 being the anniversary-day of His Majesty's birth ... / by Thomas Sprat ...	Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713.; Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy (London, England)	1684 (1684)	Wing S5060; ESTC R18474	15,600	44

and the principal reason why it is with him this I have premised as briefly as I could in so weighty and copious an argument as a necessary introduction for th' applying my text to our selves and to this glorious day of mercy and forgiveness A day of which amongst its many other felicities this is none of the least that do what we our selves could not to deserve any more of these days do what our worst adversaries could that we should have no more of them yet neither our sins nor their malice have prevail'd But we are still met in the house of God in a Congregation of true and dutifull Sons of the Church of England in the midst of this His Majesty 's always best-beloved now I am sure I may say most deservedly beloved City here we are met once again to solemnize this day and to doe it as joyfully as we did at first nay more if possible Since now by the late defeat of the new Conspiracies of His Majesty's old and new Enemies though it is prodigious he should have any new ones however now by the blessed prospect of Peace maintain'd and Justice restored and Rebellion once more destroy'd by its own arts now by the renew'd affections and united acclamations of all good men from all quarters of the Land by the joint consent of Heaven and Earth by the voice of God and of the People which we have been told is the voice of God The voice not of the unruly tumult and giddy populace but of the good loyal and peaceably-devout People that is as the voice of God and by all these methinks I am incouraged to call this day a new resurrection as it were of that great Nine and twentieth of May and this year the very Restoration of the King's Restoration So perpetually fresh and triumphant ought to be and I may venture to presage will be in all ages to come the precious memory of this day whereof it may be justly affirm'd that except the general redemption of all Nations on a day of all others the most memorable that day which was the fountain of all the good things we obtain'd on this or any other day but except that on this day we had heap'd on us the greatest blessings that perhaps ever any Nation under Heaven receiv'd from it on any one day To God alone be the glory of all For what I beseech you can be said less of a day whose mercy was so diffusive that it extended to its Enemies as well as Friends Laid good and sure foundations if they and we had but built upon them to make us and them and all that come after us happy in all our great interests whether temporal or spiritual To you the ancient Friends and well-wishers of this day the old Loyal party I mean for I doubt not but to many such I speak you especially who endured the loss of your Countrey in hope of returning on this day you who so many years preferr'd an honourable Exile before the injoying such a Countrey without the King To you I will not say this was a day of mercy onely because you were restor'd to your estates and possessions by it Those you had sufficiently shewn you never esteem'd as your chief goods and therefore I will not reckon them as the principal blessings you reapt on this day But to you this was a mercy worthy of your perseverance in such a cause to behold the King and with the King his and your beloved Church of England restor'd The Church which was all the while your constant companion your chief delight and sometimes almost your onely comforter This Church you beheld on this day decently re-establish'd in its own Temples whose Tabernacle you had so long followed in the Wilderness Thus was it to you a mercy How much more was it so to those of us who by an unhappy fate were either born or bred up in those miserable times who had not the honour of such a Banishment abroad but had the necessity of an inglorious Confinement home how much on all accounts to us was this a day of mercy A day which in exchange of an unlawfull yoke of Tyranny and the worst of Tyrannies imposed on us by our fellow Subjects return'd to us the easie and blessed Government of our Lawfull Prince A day that secur'd to us a lasting safe and innocent peace not a false or slavish peace like that we had before worse than the very state of War A day which gave us to know what a true liberty of Conscience is instead of a Licentiousness A day which restor'd our King to his Rights and Prerogatives our Countrey to its Privileges and Laws for the false shews of which things it had so bitterly suffer'd But what need I prove that to you and to us this was a day of mercy when it was mercy and forgiveness to its implacable Enemies To some of them it was the first innocent day of their whole lives O! had it not been the last To them it was a forgiveness on Earth of all their past crimes and might have been so in Heaven too if once they would but have learn't to be less familiar with God and more to fear him However to them it was a mercy that it made them for a time quiet and harmless whether they would or no that without their own personal ruine it ruin'd their usurped Powers which had render'd them so guilty towards God so factious amongst themselves so hated of all good men and at last of all mankind But this one day most seasonably took from them the opportunities of destroying themselves as well as us by the numberless confusions and phrensies of Enthusiastick zeal This day gently deprived them of those wretched arms by which they had been so long successfull against truth and the true Religion which to be is really the greatest of miseries Wherefore to the whole English Name and Nation was this a day of mercy By this day our age has been inrich'd with all the blessings of the right hand and of the left By this we were taught Precepts and Examples sufficient to transmit those blessings entire to all posterity By this the true cause of God and of the Kingdom was for ever vindicated by divine Providence against the false cause By this divine Providence it self was vindicated clear'd from the twenty years mischiefs and desolations which their deluded Authours were wont most arrogantly to impute to the special favour and indulgence of divine Providence But on this day Sedition and Rebellion in the State found or should have found its fatal period Now it might have learn't that although it may be for a time perniciously victorious yet it can never be quietly setled in peace that although God may sometimes in wrath permit yet he never in kindness incourages prosperous wickedness In a word on this day Schism and Sacriledge in the Church were abundantly confounded and should once for all have been

his common providence Not then by bare natural signs or obscure presages or doubtful tokens of his pleasure but by a flaming hand lift up on high by a dreadful Fire That being made the prodigious occasion of so great a mercy which is otherwise esteem'd a dismal judgement That surprizing Fire of New-Market only chance or negligence then seem'd to have kindled But the event shews it came from a higher and a better cause By that was the good King rouz'd on a sudden driven first out of his own Lodgings then by the smoak and ashes of it pursued out of Town so forc'd thence home to Whitehall before his appointed time and his Enemies black hour prefix'd Thus God conducted him hither safe and untouch'd passing just by that Same infamous Rye which was then innocent because then unprovided that otherwise might have been the fatal womb of so many unspeakable mischiefs But hitherto and for some months after you may remember the King suspected nothing of his danger imagined nothing of his escape after he was escap'd perceiv'd not as yet the heavenly protection that had cover'd his head I will not say in the day of battel but of his ordinary travelling which might have proved to him more dangerous than the fiercest Battel As yet the wicked conspiracy was not dissolv'd nor as yet were all their merciless hopes lost The same wretches tho somewhat struck with so great a disappointment yet still met and combin'd still contrived new places provided new weapons sought out new opportunities to perpetrate the same deed Still some of them thought what one of them the accursed Ferguson had impudence enough to say that by this accident the King was not so much delivered as reserved for some greater judgment When Lo in the midst of our profound security one of the cheif partakers in the dire Conspiracy being himself not suspected not invited not tempted by promises not frighted by threatnings but only those of his own conscience then he in meer remorse and dread of his guilt came voluntarily in and revealed the hidden work of darkness And God soon seconded his own favour so well begun By swift degrees so many new discoveries were made So many sensible concurring proofs strengthened each other So many undeniable demonstrations of all circumstances confirm'd all So many confessions of the principal both living and dying Plotters broke forth And they were plain confessions even when they were taught most to prevaricate and most cunningly to equivocate For of those impious arts the Jesuits are not now the only Masters But so many and so clear evidences did on a sudden surround and illustrate the whole matter of fact One particularly which I am loath to mention and I cannot mention it but with pity as well as horror that lamentable self Murder I mean which yet was a much stronger proof than many living witnesses could have been All this I say meeting together to convince the whole world of the reality of this Conspiracy I dare now pronounce that next the having a share in the detested Treason it self the next crime is the not believing it I mean the seeming not to believe it For our Enemies themselves cannot but believe it And most certainly whoever shall now pretend not to believe that this Plot was real it may justly be concluded the the same men at the same time do desire it had taken but too real an effect But I forbear We have heard what inestimable mercy there was with God for us first by so miraculously giving us and then in an equally miraculous course of Providence by continuing to us the mercy of this day But to what purpose think we was all this mercy with God for us Only that it might be thus faintly repeated and imperfectly rejoyced in once a year That cannot be sufficient The greatest and most durable end of this dayes mercy is undoubtedly the same that we find in my Text to be the chief intention of all Gods mercies that therefore the divine Majesty should be the more fear'd Indeed all Gods mercies do exact from us a sutable return of some kind of fear Yet some more than others Those his mercies that flow gently down from Heaven calmly falling on all our heads every day in blessed influences relating to this life or the next but without any great noise or astonishing circumstances They require all our Love all our thanks and some fear too mingled with them A fear of vilifying them by neglect or forfeiting them by abuse But such mercies as these before us preservations of Crown'd heads and Royal Families devastations of Kingdoms prevented mighty Nations freed from slavery these come when they come upon us with a greaterforce and concussion of thoughts and tho with a delightful yet give me leave to say it with a formidable train of terrible delights These mercies therefore as they expect from us our equal love of God so they may well demand our greater fear of him more of our submission to his power and of our reliance on his will more of our adoration of his unsearchable counsels and of our humble thankfulness for his declared goodness Thus most solemnly does this mercy call for our fear of God according to all the interpretations of the Word That we fear him so as to reverence him for all the secret degrees of ripening this mercy foregoing this day that we fear him so as to bless him for all the ensuing happy dayes we have ever since injoy'd as a consequence of this That we fear him so as to stand in aw and so as to sin no more That with a careful diligence in our particular duties with a zealous fear of God with an unwearied vigilance over our selves with a dutiful watchfulness for our King too in our several stations we dread and revere God for this and all his other mercies least we be forc'd to do so for his Judgments Since the same God who has thus bestow'd on us the greatest of mercies is also able to inflict Judgments as great That is evidently one part of our duty rising from the contemplation of this dayes mercy for this undeniable reason we should all be induced not to disobey or dishonour but to fear God There is still behind another very considerable part of it which respects God too tho it seems more immediately to concern the King It is that the mercy of God on this day the forgiveness which God put into the Kings heart to be willing into his hands to be able to dispense to all his Subjects this should lead us all to fear that is in Scripture Language to honour the King But this Doctrine which else where is the most proper subject of this days solemnity I thank God in this Assembly I need not spend time to inforce Your known and steady Loyalty has saved me that labour Yet what it were superfluous to advise the Kings friends is God knows but too seasonable to wish his Enemies would do Let it therefore be the fervent charitable prayer of us and of all Loyal minds on this day and true Loyalty is most generally accompanied with true Charity That God at last would turn the Kings Enemies hearts and so they shall be turn'd From what less than Gods mercy can we expect so great a change since all the Kings mercy has not been able to effect it But O! that now in this our day their day too once it was as properly as ours and may be so again by their amendment O! that now they would mind the things that belong to all our Peace O! that now they would understand that the best and only lawful way to preserve the Reformed Religion amongst us is to defend it only its own way and not by practising its very Enemies principles O! that now they would reflect with grief on all their fresh contrivances against his Majesties Crown and Dignity And if for no other yet for this reason they would seriously repent of them that the King was so ready to forgive all their old offenses without so much as staying for their repentance O! that now at length they would begin to fear the King for his mercy Since amidst all his power hitherto they have never had any other just cause imaginable to fear him O! that henceforth they would forbear upon any more pretences of Reforming the Church and State to violate that Royal goodness which when all was done was next under God only able to heal the breaches and compose the distractions they had caus'd once before under the disguise of such Reformations God of his infinite compassions grant that they may be converted and we united that without any other fear but of God and the King we may serve God all the dayes of our lives that we may long enjoy the Kings mercies and they may have no more such need of his forgiveness Amen FINIS Vers. 1. Vers. 2. Vers. 3. Vers. 4. Vers. 5. Vers. 6. Vers. 7. Vers. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉