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	religion_n	1,637	5	5.7823	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35517	A discourse shewing that kings have their being and authority from God that therefore good kings when dead are lamented, that all while living are to be obeyed, and that treason and rebellion are punishable both in this and the next world : preached the Sunday following the news of the death of ... Charles the Second / by John Curtois ...	Curtois, John, 1650 or 51-1719.	1685 (1685)	Wing C7700; ESTC R17308	19,772	38

gentle but also to the froward for this is thankworthy if a man for Conscience toward God endure Grief suffering wrongfully For what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults ye shall take it patiently But if when ye doe well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God And then he proposeth Christ as the great pattern and exemplar for it For even hereunto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffer'd threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously And both St. Peter and St. Paul with all the other Apostles acted answerably to this Doctrine and their Master's example This we are ascertain'd from their Acts recorded by St. Luke and from other Histories of their Lives The Governours of the Church that followed the Apostles in the first Centuries and so had reason to understand their Doctrine best exactly transcrib'd this Copy publickly teaching and practising the same Euseb l. 3. c. 36. p. 108. ed S. Polycar Ibid. l. 4. c. 15. p. 132. Cypr. ad Demetr Ep. 83. §. 2. All the weapons they used themselves in desence against the severity of the Pagan Emperours and all they taught to be used by every Christian were their Prayers Fasting and Tears And so it came to pass that when Christianity had gain'd ground on Heathenism and was so far advanc'd in the Empire that the Christians equall'd if not exceeded the Heathens in number and courage Tertul. Apol. c. 37. p. 30. Naz. in vec 1. in Jul. p. 94. they generally valued their Faith and Allegiance more than their lives and chose rather to open their Breasts to the point of the Emperour's Sword Just Mart. Apol. 2. Vsser ep Ign. p. 9. Lactan. de Just l. 5. c. 13. p. 495. Tertul. ad Scap. c. 1. p. 72. than lift up their own against his Their Persecutors in the heat of their Cruelty saw this and confess'd it And the Apologists for Christanity rejoyc'd and glory'd in it as one great cause of the propogation of their Religion Agreeably to these first and purest Ages of Christianity the Church of England teacheth her Children not to resist or rebell against their Prince This she doeth very copiously and strenuously in her Homily against Disobedience and Rebellion set forth in the Reign of Q. Elizabeth Which because she doth so largely there insist upon it I shall rather chuse to refer you to for your better satisfaction than mention any particulars from it It was necessary this Doctrine should be vehemently press'd in the days of that Queen because there were then a company of men started up that began to corrupt and ridicule it Bell. de Rom. Pontif. l. 3. c. 9. l. 5. c. 7. Knox to Eng. and Scot. p. 78. Hist p. 343. Buch. de jure Regn. p. 61. Bp. Bancrost danger Positions such as Bellarmine the Romanist the two Presbyterian Scots Knox and Buchanan and our first Nonconforming Divines men who as the Apostle saith of some other enemies of the Truth could not but be willingly ignorant But they had the Luceferian Ambition to be above all that are called Gods to be Kings themselves and therefore had brazen'd their Foreheads and were resolv'd to say any thing that would serve their designs in dethroning the Rightfull Sovereign And indeed there is nothing in the World could doe it more effectually than this for the Subject being once persuaded of the Lawfulness of Resisting his Prince any little humour or passion any private grudge or animosity would be soon heated into open Rebellion And so it follow'd the viperous progeny of these men in after years improv'd and promoted their Fathers principles They sate brooding a while upon that Cocatrice's Egg and then Rebellion and Regicide sprang from it The Malecontented people did actually rebel and King Charles I. was murthered And not satisfied with that the same men have with the same Trumpet of late sounded another Alarm to Battel And therefore it is but necessary that the Clergy of the Church of England should as loudly sound a Retreat by proclaiming the duty of Nonresistence and Passive Obedience And it is their glory and their honour that they doe so because they are hereby true to God the King and the Church Speech concerning Bill of Exclusion printed for Baldwin Notwithstanding some of the Excluding Speech-makers cast it into their Teeth as their shame and reproach The shame be onely theirs that contrary to Oaths and protestations throw dirt in the face of their Venerable Mother and for no other reason malign their Spiritual Guides but because they tell them the Truth That of St. Paul is very Applicable to them 2 Tim. 3.8 As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the Truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith but they shall proceed no farther for their folly shall be manifested unto all men as theirs also was I will say no more than that the very Heathens will rise up in judgment against the men of this leaven Tac. Hist l. 4. c. 8. For Marcellus told the Romans that Subjects might wish for good Princes but ought to bear with any And Pliny That as mem are Reverent in their behaviour when they converse with God Praef. ad Admiran Rom. so ought they to be in their deportment to their King And as the Supreme part of the World is above the disturbance of the lower Regions so the Courts of Princes are not to be profan'd with the rude approaches of their people L. 2. exem Po. c. 16. So Sacred and revereable was the Person of a King among the Antient Heathens by the mere light of natural Religion After all this some perhaps may Quaere in particular What if Our King should actually endeavour to destroy the Religion that is now by Law Establish'd or punish us for the open profession of it might we not then Lawfully take up Arms and list up our hands against him in defence of Religion To this I cannot answer better than in the words of the Learned Dean of Canterbury viz. Letter to late Lord Russel That the Christian Religion doth plainly forbid the resistence of Authority That though our Religion be Established by Law yet in the same Law that Established our Religion it is declared that it is not lawfull upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King Besides that there is a particular Law declaring the power of the Militia to be soley in the King and that tyes the hands of Subjects though the Law of Nature and the General Rules of Scripture had left us at liberty which I believe they doe not because the Government and peace of Humane Society could not well subsist upon those Terms Thus the