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	lord_n	see_v	5,118	5	3.3465	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20838	The practise of princes. Published by A. Ar	Ar., A.	1630 (1630)	STC 722; ESTC S100204	18,364	24

THE PRACTISE OF PRINCES Published by A. Ar. Prov. 29.4 The King by judgment stablisheth the Land but he that receiveth gifts overthroweth it Printed in the yeare 1630. WHen the Children of Israell had sinned against the Lord he delivered them over in the hands of spoylers and sould them into the hands of their enimies round about so that they could not stand before them Levit. 26. Deut. 28. Iudg. 2. Our estate is so we have transgressed his laws with an high hand and yet we have not hearts to lament it as we should nor eies to see the hand of God goe out against us in all we sett our hands unto both in peace and warre but we attribute all to secondary causes looke not to the Lord against whom we have sinned some of us can see that our best Nobility and valiantest Captains and Souldyers are cutt off by indirect means and our wealth and honour consumed to our great reproach and ignominie Yet we do not observe it as we should and what a fearfull estate our land now stands in this short treatise doth shew amongst them that beare sway or at least might be heard by the rulers All seek their own and no man that is Christs Some of them pretend to be conversant for him in superficie boni but it is indeed in alto mal● Where is there amongst us anie that will stand for the cause of Christ so that I may say there is but a step between us and death Hester will interpose hirself for her countrye and if she perish she perish the fire of Gods wrath is ready to break in upon us therefore if the fewel of sin be not taken away the wrath of Gods will never ceasse till we be all consumed What true heart will not bring help to quench this fire alas it will be vain to bring water when the house is burnt to ashes Who will not at least crye when he seeth his mother murdering I will conclude with the Apostles words Lord save us else we all perish A. Ar. The practise of Princes WISDOM in the Proverbs which all Divines acknowledge to be the Sonne of God the eternal Word by which the father made the world saith there by me Kinges raigne and Princes decree justice by me Princes rule and the nobles and all the Iudges of the earth Where though it be true that God infused into divers heathen Princes and Iudges zealous of virtue and justice some beams of this Wisdom who may therefore be saide in som sort to rule by it yet wee are not to understand that every King and Governour that ruleth iudgeth by unlawful policie or wicked counsell doth it by this Wisdom Jeroboam vainly fearing that the peoples going up to Ierusalem would make them revolt tooke counsaile for the setting up of calves in Bethel and Dan wherin he and his counsel did not rule by this Wisdom but by a divelish policie which indeede was rather folly then true Wisdom for it made God his enemie and was the sodaine overthrow of his howse as the like earthly policies were of the families of Saul Ahab Absolon Achitophel Haman and others The meaning therefore of that place is that all Kings Princes Iudges and Governours that judge and rule well and happily they judge by or according to that wisdom which is Gods word therby keeping theire people what in them is in the true worship and feare of God as did David Iehoshaphat Hezekiah and Josiah wherin they are truly Gods Vicegerents seeking his kingdom and the righteousnes thereof and whereby theire owne kingdoms are kept in peace and the neighbouring kingdoms come to feare them as they did Iehoshaphat therefore wisdō saith By me Kings raigne not by any polices or subtiltie but by me who am Gods Wisdom Which is there found most true where Princes square theire counsels by Gods word and labour that theire people may be governed in all matters of faith and salvation by his revealed will and where as they ought theire owne lawes and governement tend to the same ende for therefore the throne of a King is called the throne of the Lord and the kingdoms of this world the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ But besides those general rules in the Law and the Gospel which shew Princes what should be the end and scope of al their lawes and government and by which where kings doe so esteeme of them their people are bridled and kept in awe as by that word which stilled the raging of the sea and the madnes of the people and which is the rod of his strength this Wisdom in holy writ and especially in that booke of the Proverbs hath left unto all Princes divers speciall Rules whereby they ought to square all their actions and government which may be called The Princes principles or The practise of Princes which should be regarded as Christs charge to Christian Kings and euer observed because they are Gods immutable Wisdom which he hath left to be a sure guide to all Princes to the ende of the world and wherof in a more special manner that may seeme to be saide By me Kings raigne c. Now therefore hearken o Children unto me If al the Children of Wisdom ought so to doe Princes more especially their calling beeing of the greatest waight deeply concerning so many thousands of people and standing most in neede of that Wisdoms help which is the Sonne and the Prince of the Kings of the earth Al Princes are as much bound to observe his lawes and directions as theire meanest subiects are to regard theirs for he is the King of kings and all his Rules and directions are perpetuall lawes so immutable and irrevocable that all designes and determinations that are contrary unto them how faire a shew soever they make of wisdom and a probable good they are but meere wickednes and can not establish the Prince that puts them in practise but rather tend to his undoing for that is one infallible principle left us by Wisdom A man can not be established by wickednes and therefore the Lord saith Woe to the rebellious children that take counsell but not of me and cover with a covering but not of my spirit which walke to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh and trust in the shadow of Egypt as Asa also sought a league with Syria and relyed on it and not on the Lord and was therefore punished wherefore Wisdom saith It is an abhomination to Kings to commit wickednes for the throne is established by justice by carrying themselves justly towards God and their people therefore state policies that stand not with pietie must needes overthrow it Such are all temporisings in matters of religion with Princes and people of a contrary faith and seeking or favouring middle waies of reconcilement such as halt betweene God and Baal betweene Christ Antichrist like the Arminians of our time which euer

more reverenced or lesse Surely lesse witnes the generall murmurs of his subjects throughout the whole Land and divers bold outrages of Sailors and unpaide Souldiers Would it not greive any true Subject to see how the Kings authority was of late despised in that outrage in Fleetestreete backed by the Templers wherin som observed a just judgment of God that as the King suffered divines who are or should be Gods lawiers and Souldiers to tread Gods authority law under foote by slighting som proofs of Scripture and sophisticating others so God suffered Souldiers Templers and other Innes of court men to spurn against his lawes and authority God that oft payes by retaliatiō suffers people to deale so with Princes as they deale with him and theire Servants to bee alike faithfull to them in theire service as they are to him in his If people see theire Princes cast away the word of the Lord in divers things they wickedly grow as careles of Gods word which enjoines subjection to Princes and which otherwise stilleth the madnes of the people and keepes them in aw God causeth the Prince that feares him and sincerely furthers his word preached to be by his people reverenced loved feared and enriched with presents and gifts as Jehoshaphat was He therefore that doth it not but rather the contrary he must needes finde the contrary him he suffers to be molested with enemies and the rebellions of his owne vassals as were Salomon Rehoboam Jeroboam Ioram and others wherein that is fulfilled which the Lord saith Those that honour me I will honour and those that despise me shall be lightly esteemed Looke then on the dishonours and losses of the State abroade the troubles divisions and outrages at home and confesse them to be the fruits of theire councels who stand for connivance at poperie favouring of Arminians and protection honouring of delinquents temporall spirituall But though I should reckon up all the fruits of theire counsailes some men would yet commend them for wise counsellors as our Arminians and ambitious temporisers and popelings doe who have all thriven by them for as wisdom saith They that forsake the law praise the wicked but they that keepe the law set themselves against them Wicked men understand not judgment but they that seeke the Lord understand all things It is fit indeede that Kings should have theire counsell for where no counsell is the people fall but where many counsellors are there is health that is if they be honest men and true as the old men that counsailed Rehoboā faithfully divers greate matters of state may be better carried by such privy counsellors then by a Parliament which is more publick open but if they be Achitophels and as the yong men that gave wicked counsell temporisers or false to the religion and State they seeme to serve then the more they are and the more wit they have by so much the worse they beeing such as Wisdom describeth When the wickid are increased transgression is increased but the righteous shall see theire fall Such as neither Feare the Lord nor the King but meddle with them that are given to change religion and government for such while they rule theire King are all Princes to his hurt and so wisdom saith For the transgression of the Land many are the Princes thereof They are the sinnes of the Land which raigne in the light of the Gospell as drunkennes adulterie prophanenes oppression and the like that provoke God to suffer them to be intruded to prevaile against the zeale and care of so many Parliaments Not all the base trecherie of delinquents nor the wisdom of so many hundred men oft set in Parliament to discover them suffice to make the King see theire practises and the danger of defending them much lesse the necessity of expelling them when the sinnes of the nation hold them up If our sins had not supported them to plague us God that maketh men to be of one minde in a howse would have made our Kings as our Parliaments to heare see and abhor them and not have suffered them to be so deafe and blinde on that side to the breeding of such longe and dangerous divisions betweene the head and members of the Parliament but for sinne He taketh away the speech from the faithfull counsellors and judgment from the ancient Hence it was that God suffered the Duke to get so many to be created and made Earles Vicounts Barons and Bishops them to be brought into the parliament to uphold his faction and carrie out his partie in the upper howse by multitude of voices after the Popes example in the counsell of Trent A strange way and merit to atcheive honour if I miscall it not beeing so attained by them that justifie the wicked for a reward what true honour have such men It is ● greate honour indeede to a mā to be made a Peere of the Realme and by virtue thereof to sit as a Iudge in Parliament to heare causes and to stablish and ordaine lawes matters so greatly concerning a nation but that is if it be for the right furtherance of Gods kingdom true religion and justice and the manifest good of the common wealth herein they are Gods in a laudable sense and worthy reverence but if by them these things shall goe backward and the contrary be brought forward If a man shall attaine and hold honours for favouring poperie Arminianisme or neutralitie or for conniving at such practises as those of the Duke or for justifying delinquents and getting Parliaments for theire sakes dissolved or for overthrowing theire lawes and priviledges is there true honour in such a one It is indeede as if one attained or held honours by murders treasons adulteries thefts lies and the like or by slobering them over as som write of the smothered murder of Marques Hambleton and others and as if a man should get the honour to be a Iudge by overthrowing the lawes And they that get or hould honours and offices by getting Parliaments thus dissolved and providing that there may be no more or at least not free to touch all ill practises and persons it is as if one should get the honour of a Iudge for overthrowing the court of justice or for providing that no causes might be heard or at least that divers might not come to true judgment but either be smothered and throwen out or carried by corrupted voices What poore ploughman haveing the knowledge and feare of God is not much happier then such greate ones with theire thus bought offices and honours And yet who sees not that those who for such services to the Duke and his faction have beene made Earles Vicounts and Barons are exceding many and three fould more then the ancient nobilitie at least then those of them that have constantly distasted such vile practises and all communion with them the like might be saide of Bishops Deanes