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	faith_n	just_a	1,515	5	6.5831	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56250	A political essay, or, Summary review of the kings and government of England since the Norman Conquest by W. P---y, Esq.	Pudsey, William.; Petty, William, Sir, 1623-1687.	1698 (1698)	Wing P4172; ESTC R19673	81,441	212

Exhorters The Practice of the World runs otherwise and the Prospect is too Melancholy where there is no Sunshine in the Landscape If then neither the Historical part of the Old Testament nor the Doctrinal parts of the New nor the certain Authority of Councils or Convocations nor the Extrajudicial Opinions of Divines do unanimously evince our Duty of blind Obedience or Non-resistance under a total subversion of a Constitution in Church and State and the Practice of the Christian World in all places is counter to it Why are these Gentlemen so severe upon us and so resty themselves Lay the Scene in Holland Germany France where a Holy League is no News or Portugal c. Resistance is an Orthodox Doctrine but put the Case at Home it must be Heretical and no less than Damnation Why must English-men be the only Cullyes of Europe and have their hands ti'd Although the Church of England does not pretend to follow the Doctrines of the Church of Rome yet I verily believe they never thought to betray their own Church to that by setting up a contrary Doctrine Suarez de Legibus acquaints us with the Popish Doctrine expresly in this Case viz. That Heathen Kings can't be depriv'd of their power by War unless they abuse it to the Injury of Christian Religion or the Destruction of the Faithful that are under them as is the constant Opinion of Divines meaning of the Church of Rome And again If Infidels have the Faithful for their Subjects and would turn them from the Faith or Obedience of the Church then the Church hath just cause of War against them But for Heretick Princes he says the Church hath Direct power over them and may deprive them in punishment of their Infidelity or Heresy This we saw verified in Queen Elizabeth and she by Advice of her Divines in preservation of Church turn'd the Tables upon them I do not believe any of our Divines are so passive to betray their Church and yield to the Pope or any one commission'd by him their Dignities and Revenues though they Deliver over the Nobility and Gentry to Damnation for preserving them in possession of them I mean they who have taken the Oaths to the Government as a King de facto for I believe the Others who are not come in are more charitable for I confess I have an Honourable pity for them and value them never the less for sticking to something though they are unfortunate and differ from me in Judgment But besides the Business of Religion the Papists ought not to be angry with us for Deposing or Removing a King they are uneasy as soon as others and do not take the Passive Doctrine to be any Restraint upon them even in the ill Administration of a Popish King Witness that Story of the King of Spain in Portugal and the Advance of the Duke of Braganza And here at home to look back and instance only in Edward the II d who as the History says being govern'd by Gaveston and the Spencers murder'd his Uncle Thomas Earl of Lancaster and numbers of Great men The People the Popish People rose against him Imprison'd him and a full Repesentative of the Nation in a solemn manner renounced their Allegiance to him but told him withal they would suffer his Son Edward to succeed which was a favour it seems in those Times Therefore I think the Papists whether they consider their Doctrine or their Practice can't hit us in the Teeth justly Their only Grievance is That the Person is mistaken and doth not prove for their turn And I do not doubt notwithstanding Dr. Sherlock's Settlement they would endeavour to remove King William for King James or any other Popish King again And I can't blame them for it for 't is their Principle but as Gentlemen they ought to give us leave to enjoy our fancy too And so to look into our own Church-men who would seem to mince the matter either in their Principles or Practice They tell us a Story of Licinius and Constantine and endeavour to parallel the first with King James II d and justify the latter for making War upon him by whom they intimate King William but they manage it so scurvily on and off that one knows not where to have them they would and they would not as if they were asham'd of their Passive Doctrine and yet asham'd to quit it The Bishop of A. allows a Foreign Prince to make War upon Another who prosecutes his Subjects for Religion if the Religion be his that makes War for that reason and what is this more than hath been said before But Puffendorf speaks boldly and allows also Subjects to use an Absolute Prince as an Enemy if he discovers an Hostile Mind towards them We keep a Clutter withour filial Obedience to the Patriarchal Power c. But Puffendorf grounds even the Paternal Power over Children upon their presum'd Consent and says 't is admitted Sons may when they come of Age chuse whether they will be under their Father's Government or not And here by way of Parenthesis a Man might raise an unlucky Dispute Whether there be any Government Legal and Rightful but what is only obtain'd by Consent For if this be true it will go a great way in the Argument even of their Patriarchal Power which for this reason cannot be Absolute and no Other way can give any Right at all for Conquest is but an overgrown Trespass upon the Possession and Right of another And if there be no Government but by Consent of the Governed whether the People's Consent will carry a Government farther without a subsequent and continued Approbation And the Consequence of that when we Swear Allegiance to a King be not that it is to be understood no farther than he governs by Law and that our Allegiance is due to Law not to the person of a King Whether these Considerations may not be offer'd with as good a Colour as some others have been Whether Kings do not mean this when the consent of the People is ask'd Or whether they mean nothing Whether 't is not understood by the consent c. We might also enquire how our Gentlemen came to be wiser and more scrupulous in their Allegiance than their Forefathers And what Titles William the II d Henry I st K. John K. Stephen Henry IVth Vth VIth and VIIth had if not by Consent We might farther ask them If this Patriarchal Despotick Absolute Power be the Right of Kings and Non-Resistance is not Lawful upon any occasion whatsoever Why they are not Unanimous in their Doctrine And what Lay-men are to do when there is a Schism in the Church But these may be thought invidious Queries But what if these Passive-Gentlemen are not consistent with themselves 'T is plain our Divines here were not so stiff to the first Motions of the Prince's Attempts for our Rescue He himself tells us that Several of the Lords Spiritual as as Temporal were in the

up they are invested with God's Authority which must be obey'd and this supersedes all Legal Disputes of Right and our old Oaths and our old Allegiance are at an end For when God transfers Kingdoms and hath set over Us a New King and setled him and requires our Obedience to a New King he necessarily transfers our Allegiance c. And the Authority unjustly gotten and wrested from the True and Lawful Possessor being always God's Authority and therefore receiving no Impeachment from the Wickedness of those that have it is ever when any Alterations are truly setled to be obeyed Why all this tho as with a supposing to Us It seems by this That the Nobility and Gentry of this Nation have been bantering God Almighty with Prayers and Praises all this while whereas both Prince and People and All of Us should have been humbling our selves in Sackcloth and Ashes and doing Pennance for our Rebellion and Wickedness I shall not trouble a Serious Thought about this Convocation-Book or the Occasion of it enough hath been said about that and the Doctor already King James I. in his Letter to Dr. Abbot shews his Resentment of the Proceedings of that Convocation Only I will produce another Convocation to shew how the former hath setled the Government The first was in the time of James the First the other in James the Second Now you shall see the Judgment of the Famous University of Oxon They in their Convocation reflecting as they tell Us upon certain Pernicious Books and Damnable Doctrines viz amongst others Proposition 10. That Possession and Strength give a Right to Government and Success in a Cause or Enterprize proclaims it to be Lawful and Just Nota To pursue it Is to comply with the Will of God because it is to follow the Conduct of his Providence Hobbes Owen Baxter Jenkins c. And Proposition 15. If a People who by Oath and Duty are obliged to a Sovereign shall sinfully Dispossess him and contrary to their Covenant chuse and covenant with another they may be obliged by their Latter Covenant notwithstanding their Former Baxter H. C. c. by their Judgment and Decree Ann. 1683. pronounced these amongst many other such like Propositions Heretical and Decreed Judged and Declared them to be False Seditious and Impious Blasphemous and Infamous to Christian Religion and destructive of all Government in Church and State What a Blessed Establishment is here What an Honourable Title hath the King in what a Condition is the Subject Thus we see how unsafe 't is to imply or suppose a Providential Usurper or King de facto which is all one and then to secure him by Arguments out of the Clouds So 't is of a Forcible Usurper or King de facto t'other way to Establish him with a Providential Success as Conqueror without Right As if we come to measure the Mysteries of Providence by our narrow Comprehensions and Rules and tack it to every Success we shall make a very odd Business of it and put Providence upon very Irreverent Offices We know how That and Scripture hath been interpreted upon other Occasions In less than half a Century upon a Certain Revolution One Side said God shewd his Indignation in Thunder and Lightning T'other That he Congraturated the Success with his Guns and Fire-works from above Plato in his time said Lawyers and Physicians were the Pest of a Country Would he not have added Divines also had he lived in some other Ages When these Gentlemen were upon their Providential Disposal and Settlement of Kingdoms They might as justly have brought some Instances from Scripture which would have been for the Honour of the Revolution Where God vouchsaf'd his Assistance to a good Cause for a Blessing to a People as well as always for a Curse to a Bad and Sinful Nation Instances which comply and would have stood with the Ordinary Rules of Morality and Human Justice As the Case of Solomon and his Son between Hezekiah and Josiah and the succeeding Tyrants and Wicked Princes Also in the Case of Rehoboam where God seems to give a Countenance to the Revolt of the Ten Tribes and assist against his Tyranny and Oppression for God says 't was his doing there also David seems to agree with this He sufficiently differences his Expressions according to the Characters of Princes and Rulers as good or bad He tells us the Fate of wicked ones not by executing upon them God's immediate personal Judgments or by the visible Hand of Providence but by Human Mediums of interposing Power to restrain them c. by the Favour of God's Assistance in an Ordinary Course of Providential Justice The Prophets did not preach Passive Obedience to the Idolatrous Kings of Israel and Judah but inveigh'd against them Did not David and his Adherents resist Saul though he spared his Person I do not pretend to plead for a Vindictive Account against the Person of Kings And the Story of Manasses methinks seems something toward ours He Set up Repaired Adorn'd and Furnish'd the Altars Temples and High Places in which the Devil was by the Heathen Worshipp'd forgetting the Piety of his Father and most abominably burnt his Sons for a Sacrifice to the Devil Moloch and shed so much innocent Blood that 't is said Jerusalem was replenish'd therewith And when after all he was reprehended by the Reverend Prophet Esai he caus'd him to be Saw'd asunder with a Wooden Saw Therefore for his Sins the Lord brought upon him the Captains of the Host of the Kings of Ashur who took Manasses and put him in Fetters and bound him in Chains and carried him to Babel where after he had lain Twenty Years as a Captive despoiled of all Honour and Hopes of doing Mischief God inspir'd him with Repentance and afterwards mov'd the Assyrians Heart to deliver him after which he forgot his Impieties and Villanies detested his Idolatry cast down the Idols of his own Erection repaired Jerusalem and at last Dyed in a Religious Peace But 't is not my Province to apply Scripture only to my self And I know not what Commission They have so familiarly to determine the Councils of the Almighty 'T is true as St. Augustin says Nothing is sensibly and visibly done in the World which cometh not from the Interior and Invisible Cabinet of God whether it be commanded or permitted though some will not allow a permissive Providence yet the Psalmist says Oh God! How profound are thy thoughts and how unsearchable to the ignorant and foolish Yet Man must be presently making Inferences Providence is said to take care of the most minute Creatures as well as the greatest And these great Texts and Stories of Prerogative and Supremacy with Complement to each other are only taken notice of whilst Others as positive lye dormant as Resist not evil Turn t'other Cheek and about giving the Cloak also These might do mischief and the Wicked of the World might take Advantage by returning them upon the