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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	king_n	prince_n	5,911	5	5.4840	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62101	A militarie sermon wherein by the vvord of God, the nature and disposition of a rebell is discovered, and the Kings true souldier described and characterized : preached at Shrewsbury, May 19. 1644, to His Majesties army there under the command of the high and most illustrious Prince Rvpert / by Edw. Symmons ...	Symmons, Edward.	1644 (1644)	Wing S6347; ESTC R13172	32,560	38

This truth doth more stownd the Rebells and more puzzell them then any one that I know and therefore to perswade their followers that themselves can give a right Commission they are faine to deny the King to be the Supreme Magistrate cleane contrary to the testimony of Scripture 1 Pet. 2.13 where the King is called the Supreme and like him who chose himself Pope they are so bold as to say the Supreme Authority is seated in themselves which is such a transcendent fancy that all the Traitors in the world that I read of durst never vent it till these sate But being driven to so great a streight that they must of necessity either yield their warre to be unlawfull for want of a right Commission or else thus exalt themselves above him that is called God this second course being the more Antichristian and furthest from the practice of self-deniall they have made choi●e of But let them fancy what they please indeed and in truth were they never so honest men for life and conversation and were the Cavaliers never so vile or so abhominable yet the warre on their side is utterly unlawfull for want of a right Commission they are not sent or authorized hereunto by the King they are therefore no other then ranke murderers of all those they kill and destroy and all the blood shed by them is no other then innocent blood As God saies of rebellious Edom who without any authority or command from God did joine with the Caldeans against the people of Israell unto whom as being Subjects they ought to have lived in obedience Ioel 3.19 that they had shed innocent blood in the Land Though Israels blood was guilty blood in respect of the Lord against whom they had sinned and in respect of the Caldeans too whom God imployed as his instruments to punish them yet in respect of the Edomites that had no Commission to go about any such businesse it was innocent blood and as shedders of innocent blood they are threatned to be punished Edom shall become as a desolate Wildernesse for that very thing saies that Text This may serve to stirre up you who are rightly authorized to be couragious in the Execution of your charge all the incouragement which the Rebells your Enemies have against you and against the King is from the evill lives of some of you who are the Kings Souldiers but you have to animate you against them in their way not onely their ill lives but also their ill Cause and their lacke of a lawfull Warrant And most especially of all you have the Justice of your own Cause the lawfullnesse of your owne call and to these I may adde the goodnesse of your King 1. Your Cause is to defend him whom God hath exalted to keepe the King in the Throne wherein God hath set him against those that would remove him from it 't is to maintaine Religion the Lawes and Dignity of your Nation and to suppresse Rebellion that Child of Hell that Parent and Nurse of all Mischiefe 2. Your Call 't is lawfull from the Prince himself the Supreme Magistrate under God in his Dominion who alone as Austine contra Faustum speakes hath power to wage Warre and to authorize them that are Agents in the same whereas those whom you do oppose as their cause lacks honesty so do they themselves lacke a Warrant to maintaine it and having no Call they cannot upon any good ground look for Gods blessing 3. The goodnesse of your King A Prince of that untainted life of that religious disposition that 't is the greatest vexation the Rebels have that they cannot fasten guilt upon him but onely because themselves have belied him and here Solomon is so much their friend as to speake a reason for them Prov. 26.28 A lying tongue hateth him that is afflicted by it Nay let me adde for your incouragement as you are Christians your King is a man that lives by Faith He doth oft acknowledge in his pious expressions what ever yet hath been done for him by yours or others hands to be a fruit of divine favour and from what he hath tasted he is still confident according to Gods promise of divine assistance I may speake of him as Ambrose of S. Austine with a little variation of the words impossibilè est Principem tantae fidei ac pietatis perire 't is impossible but a Prince of such faith and piety should at last prevaile over all his enemies And so I come to the last particular of all in your description and that is your imployment to inflict sharpe punishment upon rebellious men noted in the word Crudelis or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a Messenger without bewells so call'd from the severity he shall use against the Enemy Hee shall be inexorable and not abate one jot of the punishment that he is commanded to inflict By this Cruell Messenger some Interpreters understand Satan or some other instrument of wrath who without all compassion shall undoubtedly in the end plague rebellious men some hereby understand the conscience of a Rebell which like a Cruell Messenger shall meet him at every turne and scourge and lash him and oh that this Messenger were but once awakened and set upon our Rebells that their Consciences did but storme them some interpret the words thus He that rebells against a loving and kind Governour shall fall into the hands of one that is severe who like a cruell Messenger of God shall throughly pay him for his disobedience or some will have it thus the same Prince that formerly used him with humanity and like a Lambe shall put on the disposition of a Lion and deale with him according to his deserts we read in Scripture of the wrath of a Lambe or of the Lambe Christ Jesus himselfe who shall turne a Lyon and say those mine enemies that would not I should reigne over them bring them and slay them before me Patientia laesa fit furor Patience abused turnes into wrath But interpret or read the words how we will the sence is this Rebellious men shall be grievously punished a sharpe punishment remaineth for the workers of this Iniquity or to the seekers of Rebellion The Lesson shall bee in these words Severe punishment is the assured portion of Rebellious men I could evidence and affirme this truth many waies as 1. By the exemplarie punishment of Rebells in all ages I could tell you how the earth swallowed up Corah Dathan and Abiram who rebelled against Moses and Aron together with their Wives Children and Substance a typicall Lesson no doubt it was to teach all after Ages that utter extirpation is the due portion allotted of God unto such men I could tell you how an halter catched Achitophell and a tree Absolom how Shebae's head was severed from his body and how Bigtan and Teresh suffred death for having an ill purpose against the King and how that punishment of theirs is recorded in Scripture as

him out of his bed at midnight the diligence of a Rebell is well expressed in that place before named Prov. 16.27 28 29. 1. Vir Belial a Rebell or an ungodly man diggeth up evill that is he takes paines to undermine his brother as men do by digging to undermine Cities or he diggs into mens lives to find faults as men do into the earth to find coales and mettalls and when with the teeth of his malice he hath digg'd up some errour or perhaps made it with the help of Counsell digg'd from Hell his lipps are as a burning beame to shew it unto all 2. He soweth strife saies the Text amongst men namely in publique by his perversenesse and frowardnesse and maketh divisions among friends in private by his whisperings or as was said before betweene the Prince and his people 3. He inticeth his neighbour into ill wayes with himselfe by his cunning insinuations or els by violence he doth force them to helpe him in acting mischief Observe Solomon's words in the place and you shall easily finde this to be the sense of them and then say whether the Spirit of God doth not most notably describe the conditions of our Rebels I hope none of you will gainsay the Holy Ghost so much as to doubt of those being such who have these conditions and indeed mark it alway your own reading and experience will confirm this truth unto you that a Rebell is never idle but is either digging of evill that is plotting it or sowing of strife that is planting it making breaches whispering lies caluminiating the honest inticing the simple threatning others doing mischief one way or other to further his own designes not such a man to be found in the world again for activitie of spirit as a Rebell And the ground of this their activity is that abundance of malice which is in them now malice is like quicksilver alwayes in motion and extreame hot nor is there any grace in them to coole it's fervour whereas in the best men there is some Corruption to coole the edge of zeale againe guilty men such as Rebells be are naked men and such are alwaies deligent to get cloathing but they seeke it onely from webs of their own weaving scelere velandum esse scelus is their opinion one villany must hide another and then too they are like men of the plague desirous to infect others to involve them in their own ●ulphs their fathers own children they be to an haire like him they would faine bring all men if they could into the same condemnation with themselves The Apostle Peter notes the diligence of the devill that Arch-Rebell in these words of his he goes about like a roaring lion continually seeking whom he may devoure and in another place by his concatenation of busie-bodies with murderers and evill doers he doth well informe us that murderers and evill doers such as the devill and all Rebells be are also busie-bodies indeed they have nothing but their busie diligence to supplie their lacke of honestie and to support their wicked cause Satan for his diligence and activitie in evill is called in the Gospell Beelzebub a Flie or the God of Flies who you know know are mightie impudent and busie creatures beat them away from to place never so oft they will come againe so will he and so will they he is the great Flie and they the Rebels I meane are his Flies alwaies seeking out sore places and making them worse nor are they ever wearie of ill doing Therefore let no man think the better of the Kings enemies or of their cause for their activitie and diligence in it will you think the better of the devill for his diligence or of murderers and evill doers because also they are busie bodies sure you have no reason but strive you in all to be as diligent in good as they are in evill be as unmoveable in well doing as they are in ill doing as Christ our Saviour was who went up and down doing good as Satan doth in doing mischief was as carefull to save as he is to destroy to gather together the dispersed as he and they are to divide and scatter abroad And since the Holy Ghost doth so clearly note the pains and diligence of rebellious men do but you in your secret thoughts consider how well the Kings enemies the men of Westminster I meane have approved themselves to be fully such by their caraiages First consider how painfull and diligent they were at first in all places of the Kingdome to get themselves chosen to be Members then how cunning they were to get leave to sit so long as they listed then how politike they were to drive from the House all that were not of their own faction then how subtill they were to get the strength and Militia of the Kingdom into their own hands then how impudent they were in working suspicious thoughts in peoples hearts against their loving and religious Soveraigne and then how industrious they were to get the vulgar ingaged with themselves in their rebellious way what digging what sowing what whispering what inticing and what violent waies did and still do they use to perpetuate this Rebellion But above all devices and tricks one to my apprehension is the most remarkable when they had seized upon the Kings Revenues and his Subsidies granted to another end and had borrowed much money upon the pretended sale of Irish Lands and had collected a great deale more upon preaence to relieve the poore Protestants of that Kingdome after these and manie other purse-milking stratagems before they came to downright plunder and to leavie by way of Excise and to weekly or monethly taxations they did set up for advantage a certain counterfeit puppet stiled Publique Faith who like a wise-woman whom they call a witch did extremelie cozen and cheat the vulgar for upon her bare word promising repaiment and with interest too out of the Estates of the Nobilitie and Gentrie with the King which were alreadie become of the same tenure with Irish lands and nearer home they the common people I meane brought in their plate and money with extreme greedinesse whereby they have so deeplie ingaged themselves in the Rebellion with these Craftmasters that these wise-men can and do now urge it upon them as the strongest argument of all to keep them to themselves All is gone say they and you will be beggers and never have penny of your money againe unlesse you hold out unto the last and thus have they digged down many mens estates and dived all the money out of many purses made thousands of people as desperate as themselves Nay alas they have digged down the walls of many bodies and beene occasions of the slaughter of many thousand men they have digged down the walls of many of their consciences who are still living by their execrable oaths and accursed covenants nay more then this they have in a manner digged up