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

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42953	The demeanour of a good subject in order to the acquiring and establishing peace	Goodwin, Thomas, 1586 or 7-1642.	1681 (1681)	Wing G975; ESTC R22752	33,660	45

of Obedience to their King and a discreet Government of themselves CHAP. III. The distinct Offices of the Prince and Subject in the concerns of Acquisition and Settlement TO Speak a Man to be a true Lover of Peace is to affirm him a good Christian and very Wise A Fool neither knoweth its Value nor how to compose himself to the Study thereof Even those in diverse Ages so much Famed for Policy and the Ruine of Crowns did at the best but Act that Incendiary who not capable of otherwise attaining a Name procured it by the destruction of a magnificent Temple whereas his unfurnished Brain could have contributed nothing toward the Erecting of a meaner Fabrick At the same rate do I Judge of the exalted Men of our times who so cunningly Scatter Discords with an undiscerned Artifice To this Malice Leadeth them as a ready Guide inspiring them with Councells suiting with their proposed ends but the way of Peace have they not known nor are they capable of Instructions how to find them or Demean themselves in them But as the Arts of Government do excell all others the rest being only attendants to them so of all Regal Excellencies a thorough conversation and intimacy with the Arts of Peace is undoubtedly the Sublimest And those Subjects who in their Trusts and Stations sedulously apply themselves to the Execution of Kingly Dictates and to be fit Ministers of Injunctions of this sort are questionless the most nobly aspiring and the more nearly and immediately they are concern'd in discharge of this Office the more delicately fine and polite their frame and temper ought to be All men indeed have their executive parts to act and account for but they are for the most part different and the most accomplish't because Subjects are but subordinate In which condition to do well is their true Glory but to attempt their own Promotion to set themselves forward out of Self-confidence is the greatest forfeiture and most manifest discovery of Infirmity of judgment For although the Love of Peace is an admired Virtue in both Prince and People yet the Offices are not the same The Prince is as the Head directive the Subjects partly executive partly passive Even those whom the King from his observations of them receiveth into the recesses of Consultation are if not altogether yet in this very point for the most part Executive their advises being Insignificative until they have his approbation and are by his Will formed into a Law to which even they are to yield a ready obedience Now the Counsels of Peace are Kings peculiar Skill a Mysterious and God-like Faculty into which Subjects are not to pry any farther then the admissions of Royal Grace To attempt upon them is a Sacrilegious breach of their Peace and a great interruption of the Subjects own which nothing destroyeth like Suspition that emboldeneth this sawcy scrutiny and overthroweth in order to outward disturbances our best Peace even that of our Minds What therefore the Prophet spake in Gods cause I may to the People inoffensively speak in the Kings In rest shall ye be Saved in quietness and confidence shall be your Strength This is the Subjects safest course although they are sometimes taught the contrary that Question being reiterated with ostentation of judgment in the Speakers at what time this duty and counsel is pressed upon them What shall we all lye still seeing such approaching dangers and suffer our throats to be cut like fools and cowards And here alas how quick-sighted we would needs be when the Dreamers of Dreams have somewhat awakened and told us their dreadful Visions Whereas were we throughly awakened we could not but see more clearly and above all plainly discern that our watchful Pilot who sitteth at Helme doth naturally as bred up to Speculations and judiciously as having all the accumulative advantages of knowledge foresee any tempest which being like to arise may endanger the Ship of State We that lie below too much fear sinking by every high Blast and hearken foolishly to envious destractors Sailing in the same bottome to whom our Masters wisdom and greatness are a grief and Eye-sore Thence when there is really a time of need help is mutinously I had almost said Rebelliously denied because our Commander doth not to the certain ruin of all direct his course by common advice in an extraordinary case At the beginning of a Storm they 'l not be under his Command because they are told that they know not what perilous Rocks lye hidden in such a Tract Insomuch that in the want of due assistance if all be prosperous beyond expectation the success is miraculous and to be ascribed only to Gods immense goodness and our excellent Conductors judgment and experience But all this while what probability can we have that our Prince either doth not cannot or will not see mischief drawing on nor protect us and by so doing preserve himself Of the eminence of his abilities hath been enough if not here spoken yet every where known What reason then that his own safety should be so cheap in his own estimate Doth he it out of hatred to himself Or are his Subjects so odious to him that he becometh contented to ruin himself that we may all certainly Perish Having no reason to conclude the first we Answer the second with an Enquiry What have we done How have we behaved our selves towards him to excite in him an Indignation so Prodigious that taketh away all care and respect for himselfe And such an Indignation there must be by our undutiful demeanour or else it is manifest that our Consciences accuse us of Evil in the height designed and endeavoured which meriteth such an one although he harbour it not in his Sacred Bosome For we cannot fear that which is not or which hath not been deserved But innocence is free from suspition especially where the concerns are vastly more his then any particular Subjects and at least equal to all But the fears are raised and the suspitions somented by men who notwithstanding their Professions and the peoples opinion of them hate their King and have no desires of their Countrys tranquility And where ever such appear the King in his Rules of Peace cannot but see a necessity of taking them off by violence if other means procure not a speedy Remedy because the Publick Peace is preserved when disorder is prevented and such Victims are very satisfactory to her Nay so far are they from being in the least offensive to Peace that those Princes who have too long Tampered with other Medicines before they set upon this way of Cure have offended against her Laws by too much delay For when Busy Men have been permitted to goe on too far in dispersing their Mallice under specious pretences rather then they would strike off the Cancred Member to the general preservation although this forbearance proceed meerly from compassion the Authours have been unwillingly indeed but Accessaries to the

all private Interests whether Personal or Relative and exhibiting incorrupt Loyalty under the greatest Temptations and durance Nay even the better sort of Doggs have shewn grateful Fidelity to their Masters to the extremity of Breath So far have those other pretenders to the great Titles of Piety put off even Morality and Nature But such as truly fear God and revere Conscience upon each neglect or injurious act declare to themselves what David proclaimed to Abner and the People who sleeping left the King to David and Abishai's mercy As the Lord liveth we are worthy to die because we have not kept the Lords Anointed And wise men who know the danger will be as careful not to incurr the Divine Displeasure by sleeping when it is time of Action but rather they hate the Act of Negligence more then the desert and are so in love with their duty that no violence can seperate Affections or hinder their diligence in Preserving or Rescuing from danger the Lords Anointed the Breath of our Nostrils And this although good men in the performance of their duty least think of a Temporal reward yet they know to be the highest part of Prudence too or Rational Subtilty They know the Divine Power to be no Fiction or Dream but recollect and treasure up in their Memories the Omnipotent Acts of revenge of its dishonour upon the unthinking Contrivers of Treason and the most frequent Temporal manifestations of his Love and Honour to the Faithful They see it to be but a Tryal and being confirmed for their Duty are sure of being approved and that when God seeth his time to Turn again the Captivity of his people for their present Grief they shall obtain the chief places in the Theaters of Joy It being Gods promise That the King shall joy in Gods strength and that he will prevent him with the Blessings of Goodness They know that as the Kings Sorrow was theirs so shall his Joy be So that their Trouble although excessive hath yet much Consolation because they Hope always and their Hope is Rational depending on God who besides Scriptural most delicious Promises and Examples hath further amply furnished us with incomparable modern Patterns and Observations In the midst of their Griefs Sufferings and Endeavours they seem to hear directed to each of them as well as lamenting Rachel Refrain thy Voice from Weeping and thine Eyes from Tears for thy work shall be rewarded and they shall come again from the Land of the Enemy They are as a Faithful Wife whose Husband being either in the field ready to engage in a desperate Battle or at Sea in stormy weather and a road Infested by Pyrats Anxity and Fear make her continually Mournful she is viduated and neglectful of Ornaments and Food using but little enjoying nothing Yet Hope taketh its vicissitudes of administring Comfort minding her of the prevalency of Prayer and Patience repeating the successes with which God hath hitherto blessed either him or others who Industriously relyed upon the excellency of their Cause and which he hath to such promised This giveth Intermissions of Grief and often gaineth victory although subject to frequent relapses At length his return banisheth Hope and Fear but both serve to make great the joy which without them must have remained among the small and disregarded ones The King is the Soul of his Countreys Joy and Felicity whose Dangers or Absence cause Convulsions of Spirits in his Faithful Subjects who are Espoused to him and sharers in all his Fortunes And it is impossible while men are under greatly distracting cares for the Publick but that private Affairs and Pleasures must cease to be respected But before these Thoughts swell the heart to despair Divine Comfort appeareth encouraging Fidelity with Promisses of a Blessed Conclusion For by the Generations past they are taught that Adversities may fall upon Kings for their Kingdoms Wickedness God designing them as Punishments and Tryals for the Peoples Amendment but in his appointed time is wont to Turn him to the Prayer of the poor destitute and not to despise their desire And although God doth sometimes afflict yet he patronizeth the Cause of Kings and calleth it his own And the very success of the wicked is an assurance of their approaching fall for it is alway by them tyrannically and savagely used and accompanied with such prodigious haughtiness that the expectation must be inevitable ruine These interchangeable sorrows and hopes did once long contend for victory in the minds of the Loyal party of these Kingdoms The delays and improbabilities of our most Gracious Kings Restauration after we had seen His Blessed Father exalted to a more glorious Crown gave grief the longer possession But our reason when grief well nigh spent would permit us the use of it shewed us the impossibility of such sanguinary Pride long continuing or that those mens insatiable desires which by receiving were the more extended till at length they were enlarged as Hell should wanting supplies abroad not fall to feed upon their own Instruments first afterward one upon another and in the end ravingly exspire This reason was strengthened by a firm belief that God would not suffer such and so much blood to cry unrevenged that the patient abiding of the Meek should not alway be forgotten but that our God would be pleased to shew a token upon us for good that they who hated us might be ashamed Our fears were more durable but our hopes by these dependencies and encouragements were more quick and powerful and in the end vanquishing our fears were themselves lost in the following pleasant and celestial enjoyments The benefits whereof I humbly beseech God we may by our virtues and pious thankfulness make truely our own and by such patterns leave the possession of Posterities But the foul interruption which ill men have by indirect counsels made putteth us again upon the rack and giveth even the name of Joy but an unwelcom reception until judicious Hope relieveth us with assurances that their expectation is but short and sheweth us the Achitophels politickly contriving the frame and as cunningly erecting the Ladder from the top of which they may boast their success and give perpetuity to their memories Each dutiful Subject in the mean time with a lamenting care beholdeth his Princes troubles and the fate of those who so occasion them And such is the usual course of Divine Rewards descending upon prudent Obedience although he is least in his own thoughts yet by all his faculties endeavouring it he beginneth his own prosperity at his Soveraignes Being careless of all even life it self that is being resolutely willing to expose all that is dearest to him as the purchase of the Kings peace he best keepeth and secureth his All. By this means his adversity is shortned his joy rendred more durable and copious CHAP. VII The Princes Peace and thereby the Kingdoms settled can truely influence with joy none but Good Subjects WHat good men ask of