Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	king_n	people_n	5,231	5	4.6713	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28185	A Birchen rod for Dr. Birch, or, Some animadversions upon his sermon preached before the Honourable the House of Commons, at St. Margaret's Westminster, January 30, 1694 in a letter to Sir T.D. and Mr. H.		1694 (1694)	Wing B2941; ESTC R11041	19,052	32

their Vice-Gerents whether it can be properly said any otherwise than in sensu diviso that they are their Vice-Gerents Inferiours And whether seeing all sorts of Government are here called the Ordinance of Man and that at the same time it is said they are sent by God the Choice of the People and the Lord 's Anointed be not now one and the same thing But to come to the Point of Resistance The Doctor would do well to explain himself whether he means Resistance in concreto or abstracto if in abstracto we are agreed that the Sin of resisting any Government duly constituted is damnable as well as all other Sins are and in so far Passive Obedience is a true Doctrine If he mean in concreto that it 's unlawful to resist the Person or Persons clothed with the Government I would willingly know whether he understands Resistance to the Persons of all Governours in all cases whatsoever to be damnable or only the Resistance of such as govern according to the Laws of God and the Land If he mean the latter we are agreed but if he mean the former I would know what 's his Reason and if it be drawn from that Text Rom. 13.2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation Whether it be not plain from the Text that the Government and not the Governours are here understood or at least both in concreto And the I would ask the Doctor further Whether it be not plain from the third Verse For Rulers are not a Terror to good Works but to the evil that it 's only damnable to resist such as are so and as all indeed ought to be but not those who invert their Commission and are a Terror to Good Works and an Incouragement to Bad tho at the same time we will allow the Doctor that if any private Person or Persons resist the Magistrate by Military Force except it be in case of pure Self-defence I say in this case we all allow that such shall be punish'd as David did the Amalekite for putting out their Hand against the Lord 's Anointed even tho they be guilty of Male-Administration But if the Doctor will not allow of this Doctrine I would fain know how he can clear his Church from meriting Damnation for resisting and dethroning the late King James And if he do allow it I would desire him to answer why he is so very severe and uncharitable to the whole Nation as to imprecate and wish for Judgments upon them because a certain Party without the Consent of the whole cut off King Charles the First who if our Histories be true made as great Invasions upon the Liberty of the Subjects as ever K. James the Second did but with this difference indeed that the Father supported whereas the Son invaded the Doctor 's Church which was the cause of his Ruin for tho they had suffered him and his Brother tamely to devour most of the Civil Rights and Liberties of the People yet when-ever he came to touch the Church they who made Conscience of excluding him before made none to kick him out then So that I am afraid upon due Scrutiny it will be found that it is not damnable to resist the King but damnable to resist the Doctor 's Church But to come to an end with this Point I would advise the Doctor that seeing his Church and the Party against whom he inveighs are guilty of the same Crimes tho in different degrees that he would remember the Lord's-Prayer which he has said so often that I don't doubt but he has con'd it by Heart and as he and his Church would have the Forgiveness of their own Sins they would also show themselves ready to forgive others and not to rip up old Sores by a Yearly Commemoration for the dethroning of King James being of a later Date than the beheading of King Charles it 's ten to one but it may be as long remembred And let the Doctor and his Gang preach while they be weary and charge all the Calamities of those unhappy Civil Wars upon the score of Dissenters for refusing to obey K. Charles's unjust Commands and resisting him when he came to invade their Properties they will constantly rejoin that thousands of the Church-Communion were Socii Criminis and that the Ruin of the King and the Misery of the Nation are owing to those of the Doctor 's Kidney who preach'd the King out of his Duty and the People out of their Liberties and by consequence were the chief occasion of his Tragical End as their Concurrence all along with the Arbitrary Methods of the two last Reigns does entitle them to be called the Instruments of our present Miseries So that it will appear to every unbiassed Reader that the Carriage of the highflown Clergy in times past and present with their loosing the Reins of Discipline and exalting the Hearts of their Kings above those of their Brethren is as good an Argument to prove that they are the Authors of all our Calamities as any thing that they can charge upon the Dissenters in relation to King Charles the First Pag. 19 and 20. The Doctor ascribes it to King Charles's Murder That his Church's Excellent Religion which hath no Foreign Dependances and whose Prosperity alone is founded on that of our Country should be forced to truckle either to the Practices of Rome or to a Riot of Enthusiasts and that they are still threatned either with no Church at all or the worst among Christians But he does not consider that his Antagonist will reply That if the Prosperity of his Church's Religion be founded alone on that of our Country it must then be different from the Protestant Religion which blessed be God hath obtain'd over so great a part of Europe For the Protestant Religion has prospered there when neither it nor our Country prospered here as in Queen Mary's time and since And as for the danger which his Church is in from Papists who are the worst Christian Church or Enthusiasts by which he means Dissenters in general that are no Church it were more rational for him to ascribe the first to the Popish Matches which his Church allow'd their Kings to conclude and the great Privileges which from time to time they granted to their Religion and its Followers And seeing Papists are as great Enthusiasts as any under Heaven he may also charge his Enthusiasm on that same score But seeing he will allow the Papists to be a Church and the Dissenters no Church though the great Body of them do maintain the Doctrine of the Church of England more sincerely than many of her own professed Sons we find that the Doctor himself prefers an Unity in Discipline to an Unity in Doctrine and would shake hands with Papists sooner then Presbyterians which are far the greatest Number of the Reformed Churches and that he looks upon such things to be

perverse Fellow from amongst the Herd should reply upon the Doctor and find him other Causes for his List of Judgments and these more probable by far than any of his own confused Heap as thus That we so long heard the Cries of the Oppressed and none to comfort them because the Clergy did preach in Defence of the Prince's Oppression and the People did not rescue the Oppressed out of their Hands and therefore God made our Sin our Judgment That we beheld Servants on Horses and Princes walking as Servants on the Earth because God would punish the Pride of our Princes who had exalted their Hearts above the Hearts of their Brethren by the meanness of those whom they had oppressed and despised That God raised up a Foreign Enemy to make War upon our Coasts because of our going on to do wickedly and therefore God would punish both us and our King by the Hand of those to whom he had been ungrateful for the Kindness which they shewed him in his low Condition That he sent the Plague into our Streets for our Ingratitude to himself in turning his Grace into Wantonness and running into all manner of Abominations after our King's Restoration and because we did not look into the Plagues of our Hearts God resolved to punish us with a Plague in our Bodies That a devouring Fire should be sent to lay waste our Metropolis where we had burn'd the Oath of God which was so solemnly taken by the Representatives of the Nation and to purge the City from those Sodomitish Impurities with which the Prince had polluted it the first Night of his Arrival and was but too much imitated by the Citizens themselves That Distresses and Perplexities are still upon the Nation and that we are left open to a bitter and hasty Enemy have disputed Titles and endless Wars entailed upon us for the reigning Impieties of the present Generation and because the Doctor 's Church will still hold their Brethren in Bondage expose the most solemn Ordinances of the Gospel to the greatest of Contempt have poisoned the Nation with dangerous Principles deprive the King of the Service of the best of his Subjects prevent or stifle the Discoveries of Plots because so many of her own dear Sons are concern'd in them and invite the French to restore the late King Now I say If any stubborn Fanatick should reason thus who shall judg betwixt him and the Doctor for both of them to be sure will think their own Cause best and let the Doctor clamour till his Tongue drop out against that sort of Men they will still tell him That the bad Example of his Non-jurant Bishops the disaffected Practices of many of the swearing Clergy and the most zealous Disciples of Passive Obedience are the principal secondary Causes of our present Incumbrances and that if by the Interest of his Church Charles the Second was supported in swallowing up the Peoples Liberties and James the Second brought to the Crown over their Bellies all the Miseries which we have left do now feel or are like to suffer in time to come by the Tyranny of the Late Reigns the Wars Taxes and disputed Titles in this are justly chargeable on the Doctor 's Church and therefore it 's pity seeing they have been the chief Causers of the War but their Purses should principally bear the Weight on 't It would be a good way to prevent their medling with Affairs of State in time to come though all that they are worth can never compensate the Damages which they have done the Nation And thus I leave it to the Doctor 's Consideration against the next Thirtieth of January to tell us whether or not the Repentance of his Church for these Faults and many others which might be enumerated be not as likely a way to make God shine upon our Counsels and go forth with our Armies as the Nation 's repenting for the Murder of K. Charles the First for if we must explain the Mind of God by his Providence as the Doctor would seem to do the Repentance of this Crime seems to be demanded of his Church as the Principal Accessaries though not the Actors because the Miscarriages of our Counsels and Armies have hitherto happen'd in the hands of those of his Church and some will take upon them to prophesy that it 's never like to be otherwise so long as they alone must be intrusted with the Management For what reason have they to expect the Blessing of God who have all along persecuted their Brethren for things indifferent prophane the Sacrament of the Lord's-Supper by applying it to the most sordid Uses admit the Clean and Unclean to his Table without any distinction make no Conscience of putting their Discipline in Execution against those of their own Society but hug the greatest Debauchees as their truest Sons Or how they can acquit themselves of their breach of Oath to the late King contrary to their Principles of Passive Obedience which they do so much labour again to revive and how they can be faithful to His Present Majesty who came to the Crown by such Methods as they do all along condemn I cannot conceive And therefore it were Wisdom in the Doctor to consider whether those of his own Party be guiltless before he throw the Stone at others for if he will needs take the liberty to speak what he pleases he must be content to hear what pleases him not Reader these Animadversions have been writ in so much haste that I cannot tell whether they be Sense or Nonsense I beg thy favourable Construction on my honest Endeavours which are truly aim'd at England's Welfare FINIS