Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	true_a	work_n	3,594	5	6.0209	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56751	The unlawfulness of stretching forth the hand to resist or murder princes with the principal cases about resistance, considered, in two sermons : the first preacht upon the last thirtieth of January, the other, upon the day of thanksgiving, for the deliverance of the King and kingdom from the late treasonable conspiracy / by William Payne ...	Payne, William, 1650-1696.	1683 (1683)	Wing P912; ESTC R22908	23,488	47

necessary for the good of the World and for his Wise Designs so far they shall go and no farther but like Earthquakes and Tempests and Inundations we have no security against them but from the Providence of God These are the chief Cases and Objections against the Duty of Non-Resistance or not Stretching out the hand against the Lord 's Anointed and by these however Magical Delusions the Evil Spirit of Rebellion has been conjured up and still haunteth this Nation and fills it with Plots and Treason with Noise and Mischief and Disturbance and I know no such way to lay it from ever rising again as a full and clear Resolution to those fore-mentioned Cases which I have endeavoured to give As to the other way of Stretching out the Hand to take away the Life of the Lord 's Anointed that is so Horrid and Villanous that one would think it should have none to defend it though it have had some to commit it but there is no cause of interest so bad but it has had its Advocate and when ever there has been a Clement or a Ravilliac there has been a Confessor to incourage if not a Pope and an Infallible Orator to commend him the Opinions of the Jesuits are well known to be positive in the case and others have fashion'd their Weapons at the Forge of those Philistines which are to take away the Lives of Princes and though they are not come to Consecrate Daggers for the purpose and that because they are against the Ceremony rather then the Villany yet Pistols and Blunderbusses are thought to be Blessed Instruments for doing the great Work though they expect not to be Sainted for it and adored in Heaven yet they expect what they will hardly allow the Saints themselves to have their Images erected upon Earth and Statues set up to their honour and to the memory of such Noble Atchievements Like Herostratus they design to make their Names Famous by doing some extraordinary Villany and by daring to be wicked beyond the rest of Mankind The committing such a Wickedness as others are astonisht to think of is to be an Hero in Villany and they want nothing to out do what has been ever done or ever thought of but with the old Gyants to pluck God out of his Throne and so to put down all Rule and all Authority and Power both in Heaven and Earth I cannot think that Men can seriously argue themselves into such Villanies as these but it must be the very same thing that makes the Devil a Rebel to God which makes these Men Regicides and Traytours to their Sovereign a Proud an Envious a Discontented and Diabolical Spirit that infinite Power cannot awe nor infinite Goodness oblige but the Devil and a Scotch Conventicler are such Sophisters as can set off the most Horrid Villany and represent this as an Heroick Bravery and a sort of Gallantry that the Grecians and the Romans thought fit to be rewarded with Crowns and Statues and publick Insigns of Honour the killing of Tyrants was thought a Vertue like that of Hercules who destroy'd abundance of those Monsters nihil usitatius quam eorum interfectores in Caelo collocari says Tully ad Attic. l. 14. Ep. 16. Harmodius and Aristogiton and others were commended to the Skyes for these very Performances and not only the Greeks and the Romans did thus commend and honour them but even in Scripture Jael and Judith and Ehud Barack and Deborah and those Jewish Deliverers of their Country stand all upon the Records of Fame and the Divine Approbation for Murdering Kings and Tyrants that were the Enemies of God and his peculiar People and when the Cause of God and His People the Cause of Religion and Conscience is the great thing that is to be carried on who that has a Zeal for those would not do any thing that is necessary for so glorious an end Lucifer himself could hardly have instilled worse Principles into the Angels when he persuaded them to turn Devils and to forsake their first Station I shall give a particular Answer to the three Parts that it consists of 1. As to the Grecians and the Romans when they affixt such worthy Names and Honours to the killers of Tyrants they did not mean by Tyrants their lawful Princes but Vsurpers that by force and violence assumed an unjust Power to themselves contrary to the regular form of Government that was established among them such as had no just Title to rule by the Laws of their Country but invaded the Rights of their proper Governours and over-turned the whole Frame of the Common-wealth and against such as these they were empowered by the establisht Laws of their Country by the Lex Solonis among the Greeks and the Lex Valeria among the Romans and if any were guilty of doing this to their lawful Governours it must be reckoned as part of that Ferity and barbarous Ignorance which was in those Nations before Christianity taught them better when to kill themselves was accounted as Heroic a Vertue as to Murder a Tyrant but the Soberest amongst them taught otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Aristotle in his Politicks the very Doctrine of Non-Resistance and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Plutarch Agis Cleom. The very words almost of David It is not lawful to stretch forth the hand against a Prince and we have Examples even amongst both the Greeks and Romans of the same Punishment against those who were concerned in the Murder of their Princes that David inflicted upon the Amalekite for the Death of Saul 2 Sam. 1.16 Alexander put him to Death who kill'd Darius that was his Sovereign though he had been a great while Alexander's Enemy and so did Domitian Nero's Freeman who was but accessory to his Masters Murdering of himself 2. As to the comparing this Villany with the actions of Jael and Judith and Ehud and others who destroyed those their Enemies with whom they were in a State of War or had particular Commissions from God to authorize them in the doing such extraordinary Atchievements they might as well and with as good reason argue that because David kill'd Goliah and destroy'd the Philistines that therefore he might have taken away the Life of Saul nay that he might have made no more to kill him then the Lyon and the Bear for God's Anointed are accounted by these Men but as a sort of Wolves and Tygers and Beasts of prey that ought to be destroyed and they may as well make use of the Example of Abraham to Sacrifice and Murder their Children when they please as of Jehu and others in Scripture to destroy the House and Family of their Sovereign 3. As to the last thing that they may do anything for the carrying on a good Cause and Design as they will be sure to call what they are promoting that if it be the Work of the Lord and the maintaining the true Religion and the Protestant interest the keeping out

Popery and destroying Antichrist or any such good end they are to accomplish they may then do any thing that is necessary to this and not stick at any means that come in their way be they never so bad because a good end and intention will not fail to hallow and Sanctifie the whole action or at least to expiate and at one for all the guilt that is in it This I believe is a Principle that draws in a great many into the most villanous and unwarrantable Designs into Treasons and Murders and the greatest Villanies when they think them necessary to go through with that great and good Cause they have undertaken and this is an excellent principle like an Elixir that turns the worst Matter into Gold to transmute Treason and Murder into the purest Vertues and by a certain sleight of Intention and Spiritual Legerdemain to put the worst actions in the place of the best and Hocus Pocus Vice into Vertue when ever one pleases Nay 't is to destroy the very nature of good and evil and to make nothing so in its self but as our own Intentions put a stamp upon it if we can but graft a good intention upon never so bad an action this shall change the very kind and make all it bears fair and lovely one drop of this good intention shall take away all the venom out of the most poysonous wickedness turn bitter into sweet evil into good it will make good and evil that are naturally and immutably fixt melt and soften in our hands so that we may form and fashion them as we please and makes them meerly relative and dependent upon our Thoughts and Designs which is to destroy all Religion If a Man do but winck and aim well tho he Murder his Sovereign nay if it were his Saviour he should be justified by this Principle and the Jews who kill'd Christ and his Apostles and thought they did God good Service thereby as many of them probably did may plead it in their own full defence I cannot imagine how any one can have a good intention who ventures upon such plain and notorious Villanies but if these be guilded over with never such fair Pretences and are thought necessary for never so glorious a design yet Resisting and Murdering the Lord 's Anointed are so manifestly sinful and unlawful that none can do such evil that good may come but their Damnation must be just both with God and Man But sad is it when Men shall form such Principles to themselves as shall lead them into such Hellish Villanies when they shall think these abominable Practises not only lawful but necessary to God's Glory as if he could not bring about his own ends without their Wickedness but the Devil must be called in to assist God and to carry on the Cause of Religion God preserve Christianity from that Reproach and Blasphemy which these Wicked Men have brought upon it God preserve the Protestant Religion from that advantage is hereby given our Enemies to destroy it He who ordereth all things unto his own Glory be pleased to bring good out of this Evil and make it a means to unite us all unto his Church and make us Loyal and Faithful unto his Anointed And for ever blessed and praised be the Providence of that God who hath brought to light the hidden things of Darkness and has not given us over as a prey to Blood-thirsty Men who lay in wait to destroy us And thou O King of Heaven and Earth who hast graciously delivered thine Anointed from the hands of wicked Men stretcht out against him and hast miraculously preserv'd him from the Plots and Conspiracies of all his Enemies keep him always we beseech thee under the shadow of thy wings preserve him as the Apple of thine Eye and guard thou his Throne with Legions of Angels that the Sons of Violence may never approach to hurt him the Lord preserve him and keep him alive that he may be blessed upon Earth and deliver thou not him unto the Will of his Enemies Psal 41.2 FINIS