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	power_n	3,921	5	4.7466	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62275	A sermon preached at Reading, Feb. 25, 1672, at the assizes there holden for the county of Berks, before the Right Honourable Sir Edward Turner, Knight ... and Sir Edward Thurland, Knight ... by Joseph Sayer ...	Sayer, Joseph, 1630 or 31-1693.	1673 (1673)	Wing S797; ESTC R7938	19,707	42

A SERMON Preached at Reading Feb. 25. 1672. AT THE ASSIZES There holden for the County of BERKS Before the Right Honourable Sir EDWARD TVRNER Knight and Baronet Lord Chief Baron And Sir EDWARD THURLAND Knight One of the Barons of His Majesties Court of Exchequer By JOSEPH SAYER B. D. Rector of NEWBVRY LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St. Pauls MDCLXXIII Rom. 13. part of the 5th Verse Wherefore ye must needs be Subject IT was not without great cause that the first Preachers of the Gospel viz. the blessed Apostles did insist so very much upon and did press with so much earnestness the Inferiours duty to his Superiour For they having preached a liberty in Christ Jesus some licentious Spirits began thereupon to think themselves free from all acts of service and obedience to their Governours thus abusing their Christian freedom to the great scandal and reproach of the Christian Faith by making it a pretence for the flesh Hence the Apostle St. Peter gives a large Exhortation in these words 1 Pet. 2.12 13 14 15 16. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well that in so doing you may have your conversation honest among the Gentiles that whereas they speak evil of you as of evil doers they may by your good works which they shall see glorifie God in the day of visitation For so is the will of God that by well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God In which words the Apostle plainly insinuates that there is no such inconsistency between the Magistrates Authority and our Christian Liberty as some might think there was That they might yea and ought to maintain the one and yet withal submit to the other That it were a shameful abuse of our Liberty and a very great dishonour to our Christian Profession under pretence of being Christians to refuse to do the duty of Subjects That Christ meant not to erect a Kingdom that should destroy or but disturb the Kingdoms of this World but to confirm them rather by injoyning Obedience upon stricter obligations and severer penalties than were formerly thought of such as are the declared will and pleasure of Almighty God under the penalty of his eternal wrath and damnation That the Liberty to which he calls the Subjects of his spiritual Kingdom is a Liberty like his Kingdom 't is a spiritual not a sensual freedom 't is a freedom to serve God not a freedom from the service of men That Christians as being all spiritual Kings are to rule over their own lusts and not live according to their lusts denying Subjection and Obedience unto Temporal Princes for that were to make their Liberty become a cloak for their maliciousness or their covetousness or licentiousness And as the Apostle St. Peter so his dear Brother this most blessed Apostle St. Paul not only charges it on his son Titus that he should put men in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers and to obey Magistrates Tit. 3.1 but he does it also himself in this Chapter Rom. 13.1 Let every soul be subject to the Higher Powers And not only minds them of their duty but presses it with such variety of Arguments that in the whole Book of God there is scarcely any one duty that is prest with so much instance and importunity as this is Which does argue both the great necessity of the thing and our averseness thereunto that by Nature i. e. Nature corrupted we can brook no Government for who is willing to be ruled and yet bear it we must a necessity is laid upon us we must needs be subject and that for these reasons Because 1. If we respect the Original Fountain or Efficient Cause of Government it has God for its Author That 's the Apostles first Argument for Subjection and Obedience to all Humane Authority taken from the Author Founder Instituter and Ordainer of such Authority Rom. 13.1 There is no Power but of God The person ruling may be sometimes such a one as that we cannot say he is of God God by his Prophet Hosea does complain of some Rulers They are set up Hos 8.4 but not by me their way of coming to the Government is by such means as God prohibits And the use of the Power may be as bad as the coming by it as in King Jeroboam who abused his Authority in making Israel to sin 1 Kin. 14.16 14.16 But the Power it self is always of God and he that comes to it lawfully is sent of God and therefore to such we must needs be subject For shan't we own that Power that has God for its Author Rom. 13.4 Magistracy is the Ordinance of God Magistrates are the Ministers of God therefore it is our duty to be subject to it and them This is the Apostles first Argument for Subjection and Obedience to Authority taken from the Author of it 2. A second Argument is taken from the advantage and comeliness of order whence God himself has his Title 1 Cor. 14.33 40. He is the God of order He is the Author not of confusion but of peace And he has declared it to be his will that all things be done decently and according to order which is the beauty of Nature the ornament of Art and the harmony of the World without which it can no more subsist than the body can without a due temperament of the humours Now the Powers that be Rom. 13.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are ordained of God God has ordered them as they are He has not only ordained them i. e. instituted and appointed them as we commonly understand the word but by him they are set in order and disposed into several ranks as it more properly signifies He sets up Kings in the highest place giving them the Supremacy and under them he sets up Judges Governours 1 Pet. 2.13 and subordinate Officers to facilitate that work by the assistance of many which would otherwise prove too heavy for any one mans undertaking 3. A third Argument is taken from the evil of sin that is contracted by disobeying Not to obey the Power is to sin against Almighty God 'T is a violation of the Command of the Supreme Law-giver Whosoever resisteth the Power Rom. 13.2 resisteth the Ordinance of God In opposing the one he rebels against the other He is a Rebel against God that rises up against his Prince or makes any opposition to the Governours that are sent by him The confederacy of Corah and his Complices against Moses and Aaron Num. 16.11 is called a gathering of themselves together against the Lord. 4. A fourth

2 Sam. 19.27 My Lord the King is as an Angel of God And 't is very observable that he spake this at a time and in a case wherein the King had done him little right and lately before had done him very great injury But whatsoever the Kings dealing was towards him yet he speaks not but with great reverence and respect to the King 'T was far from him to speak any thing to the Kings dishonour to upbraid him with inconsiderateness with injustice or with oppression though he had evident cause for it if there could be any cause for a Subject to treat his Prince with any irreverence 2. When we talk of them it must be to their honour speaking of all the good that is in them and of the good that is done by them Thus did David by King Saul who was his enemy and who without any cause sought to take away his life even then and so all the while he lived it was David's stile to call him The Anointed of the Lord. 1 Sam. 24 6 10.26.9 11.16.23 When he was dead he did likewise nay he mourned for him and lamented him in these words Ye Daughters of Jerusalem weep over Saul 2 Sam. 1.14 16 24. who cloathed you with Scarlet and other delights and put ornaments of gold upon your apparel After the same manner did King David's Subjects speak of him even after he had made himself in famous by most horrible sins and them miserable by Gods Judgments on those sins yet even then they past by all the evils he had done and they suffered and remembred only the good they had received by him 2 Sam. 19.9 2 Sam. 19.9 The King saved us out of the hands of our Enemies and delivered us out of the hands of the Philistims In which words also 't is observable that though they had done their parts every way towards the obtaining those Victories and Deliverances yet they ascribe them not to themselves but unto him 2 Sam. 18.3 In the Chapter immediately before they shewed what a value they had for their King they declared that he was worth ten thousand of themselves 2 Sam. 21.17 and again they call'd him the Light of Israel But though they shewed this esteem of David who notwithstanding his faults was in the main a very excellent Prince yet perhaps they thought and spake of others as they deserved Nay they spake of the very worst of their Kings not without honour and reverence Was there a worse than Zedekiah who filled up the measure of Judahs iniquity and whom God liked so ill that he thought fit to have no more of that Linage Yet even him the Church called the Breath of her Nostrils Lam. 4.30 and lamented that he was fallen into the Pits of her Enemies They were concerned as if their Life had depended on his as in truth it did Not the life of individual persons but the life of a People or Nation and the well-being of all persons in it doth depend on that of their King Though their King be none of the best yet better have such than have none at all If there were no King men would live as if there were no God every man that has strength would be a King yea and more than a King he would be a Tyrant over his weaker Neighbour and is it not better to be subject to the lusts of one Tyrant than to the lusts of a thousand Better stand in awe of one man than be afraid of every man A severe and cruel Governour though he do some particular wrongs yet he serves for the protection of his Kingdom in general Some few of his Subjects may perhaps suffer by his cruelty but the generality of the people are defended by his Power are defended from the Invasion of foreign Enemies and from those greater cruelties which if it were not for him they would one exercise over another 'T is a very true and a very excellent expression which I find used by a person of great Learning and Authority That the little Finger of Licentiousness is heavier than the Loins of the severest Laws and strictest Government 3. A Third part or branch of this Duty is to honour them in our Actions By Yielding them all due Reverence By Rendring them their due Maintenance By Affording them our best Assistance 1. We are to honour those in Authority by yielding them all due Reverence They are Civil Gods and are therefore to be worshipt with a Civil Worship It is said of Davids Subjects that they bowed down their heads 1 Chron. 29.30 and worshipped the Lord and the King God with a Divine Worship the King with a Humane Worship They bear rule over our body and must therefore have the Worship of our body When Ahimaaz came before David he fell down to the earth upon his face before the King 2 Sam. 18.28 14.33 2 Sam. 18.28 Yea his own Son Absalom did as much 2 Sam. 14.33 David did the like before Saul 1 Sam. 28.4 1 Sam 28 4. Such honour must be given where 't is due and 't is due to those that are in Gods stead to do Justice among the Children of Men. 2. We are to honour those in Authority by rendring them their due Maintenance We are to honour God with our substance Prov. 3.9 and in like manner we are to honour those that are in stead of God Tribute must be given where 't is due Rom. 13.7 as in Rom. 13 7. and 't is due to the King as the Lord Jesus in his Gospel has taught us both by his Doctrine and Example for he himself paid Tribute to Caesar and rather than not do it Matth. 17. he wrought a Miracle to do it that he might convince the World of the absolute necessity of it And observing the Tribute-money on which Caesars Image and Superscription was he thus answered those that tempted him Matth. 22.17 21. and proposed this Question to him Is it lawful to give Tribute to Caesar or not Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods And here 't is very observable that our Saviour does not say in the case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not give but render What we part with to the use of our Prince is not to be lookt on as the peoples alms but as the Princes just due 't is not a meer gratuity but a debt He has a right and title to it and as such we ought to part with it and not only part with it as such but be cheerful in our parting with it not pay it as we would another mans debt but as an honest man would pay his own debt when he has made great profit by the money that was lent him i. e. pay it with as great a willingness as he had shewed in borrowing it And this difference is observed not only by the curious