Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	effect_n	necessary_a	produce_v	6,956	5	9.5140	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67247	The antidote: or, a seasonable discourse on Rom. 13. 1 Shewing the necessity and reasonableness of subjection to the higher powers. With an account of the divine right or original of government. By John VValker, M.A.	Walker, John, 1650-1730.	1684 (1684)	Wing W392; ESTC R222266	59,633	307

a righteous man availing much how very necessary will our Prayers be that God would give them such a portion of Wisdom and Understanding that they may be as Instruments of his Glory so true nursing Fathers to his Church and People In praying for them we pray for our selves the Good and Happiness is ours in the result and consequence When we pray for Wisdom and Understanding for our Governours as Solomon did for himself we in effect pray that God would be pleas'd to grant us to lead a quiet and peaceable Life in all godliness and honesty When we beg the Prosperity and Happiness of their Thrones we petition for our own Welfare When we desire him that they may be men fearing him and hating Covetousness we at the same time beseech him that he will make them a Wall and Buttress a Refuge and Strength unto us his People Because if they are truly wise happy and religious these and many more Blessings will devolve upon us and be the Felicity and Good of such a People and Nation For Wisdom in a Prince will make him have a tender Regard and Care for the Subject in that his Welfare depends on and is twisted with theirs His Prosperity and Happiness will make him liberal and free and ready to help and assist them and his Piety effectually incline and move him to banish all Wickedness Injustice and Oppression And if he doth thus act and this is his Practice and Business will not his Prosperity his Happiness and Good be ours and so we abundantly recompenc'd and rewarded for our Supplications and Requests to the Father of Lights on his behalf But were there no such Good redounding to us to be expected and hoped for from our thus acting yet are we to do and perform it otherwise Sin and Iniquity will lye at our Door We are not boldly to question with God concerning the Justice the Wisdom and Equity of the Command that is no part of our Province what concerns us is Obedience and with that we are to busie and employ our selves Suppose then our Governour is as cruel and as wicked a Tyrant as Maximian was who cut to pieces the Thaebean Legion must not we therefore pray for him 'T is in some mens Divinity and Religion denied we must not and the Reason they give is because we are not to pray for one that we certainly know will oppress God's Church and People But the Answer to this is Whether the Word of God doth enjoyn and command this If it doth not as it cannot well be suppos'd to command and forbid the same thing then their Resolution being without Ground and Warrant nay contrary to the Word is unholy and unchristian and so not to be followed That it hath no Ground in Scripture will appear from its Contrariety thereunto and that it is contrary thereunto will be no less evident if we consider that without any Limitation or Restriction we are positively commanded to pray for our Enemies and to love them as I have above shew'd Now if God hath commanded us to pray for them we cannot be suppos'd to offend him in doing our Duty nor can we be thought to pray against the Church of God any more then God himself can be said to be for them and against it when he permits and suffers them miserably to tear and distress it for his permission is no Argument of his approving or liking what they do for then he must approve of every Sin because he permits it which is Blasphemy to assert no more are our Prayers for them a praying for their Sin i. e. for its Success and Effect which yet must be suppos'd or else we cannot be said to pray against the Church Nor is their making Havock of God's Church the necessary Effect and Consequent of his Permission in that then his permitting it must be the necessary Cause thereof and so consequently not they but he the Author of it and of all the Evil and Injustice attending it No more are our Prayers the necessary Cause of their acting thus wickedly or that the necessary effect of Them because if they were they would always produce the same effect whether we prayed for Them our selves or others which is false and contradicted by Experience That They then are cruel Oppressors of Gods People is not from Gods permission or our prayers for to both the one and the other this is extrinsecal and accidental Neither is their Dignity Authority Riches Prosperity or any temporal Good They enjoy that may be looked upon as the success of our prayers the necessary cause hereof but Their wicked and evil Hearts These may indeed be incentives and motives hereunto and so may the best things that are be perverted and abused to evil but then this is not the fault of the things but of the men and so is it here Our prayers then being not justly chargeable with this Evil certainly nothing of lesser moment as our prejudice and passion ought to prevail so far upon us as to make us omit so necessary a practice and duty But whether this or somewhat worse hath not had too great a share in the Objection I shall leave to these mens Consciences to judge and determine Only I desire them they would be pleased so far to give me leave as to acquaint and inform them of this farther additional truth viz. That the outward calamities and pressures of the Church being only Temporal Evils not Moral and Internal ones and permitted by God to wise and holy purposes should our prayers for wicked Governours so far contribute hereunto as to enable them to afflict and grieve the Christian Church as the Roman Caesars did of old and the whole of the Objection was true as 't is indeed false yet nevertheless we ought to prefer and chuse the doing of Christs Commands before the enjoyment of the greatest Temporal Emolument and Good or avoiding the greatest Temporal Calamity and Evil. And that therefore were our Governour and King the greatest Persecutor and Tyrant imaginable we are to pray for Him did He afflict and vex the Church of Christ never so much we are to offer up our Petitions to God for His Welfare and Good The Reason is because whosoever shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teachmen so shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 5.19 I have now according to my proposed method consider'd and dispatch'd the several particulars of that Subjection and Duty we owe to the Higher Powers and so have abundantly shewed you what that Subjection and Duty is and wherein it doth consist I now come in the third place to consider who are the Persons to pay this Subjection and they are according to the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every Soul that is Every Man all indiscriminately And though this may be sufficiently understood