Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	justice_n	king_n	law_n	4,449	5	4.8812	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

of them was lately taken in the act and hang'd for the sin of Buggerie here in this Town if we Preachers should hereupon tell you from the Pulpits that all these blessed Reformers for so they are called by their adorers are even such men and guiltie of that horrid sin I believe for my part we should much abuse them in that particular and yet thus divers of their Ministers are pleased to deale with the Kings Friends the Lord in his good time rebuke them for it But alas gallant Gentlemen and Christian people you all know that there are too great and too manie occasions given by some amongst us to our enemies to report evill of us I beseech you therefore in the feare of God as manie of you are better borne and bred then those are who do accuse you and as all of you are imploied in a more righteous cause then they by your holie God and by your religious King so that you would all indeavour to be more holie in your carriages then they be to walk worthie your imploiment and you that be Commanders I beg of you that you would more strictlie punish sin in those that are under you according to those Militarie Orders set forth by His sacred Majesties your religious Master The profession of a Souldier as 't is honourable so it may be holie if you please we read of holie men of that profession David was a man of warre and did as you do fight the Battailes of the Lord and he was an holie man that great sin which did so blemish his reputation was committed by him afterward when he had left off to follow the Camp the Centurion in the Gospell was a man of your profession and our Saviour himself gives this testimonie of him that he had not found his like for goodnesse in all Israel and so that Captain Acts 10. was one that feared God with all his houshold and whose prayers and almes ascended daily into Gods presence Abraham himselfe the Father of the faithfull was a brave Souldier he with the number of 318. assaulted five Kings with their Armies vanquished them and took the spoile you may read the storie in the 14. Chapter of Genesis where you may also see who were the first men whom the Scripture notes did run away in the day of battell and hid themselves I do not say in Saw-pits but the Text saies in Slime-pits they were men full of guilt and sin even the Princes of Sodom and Gentlemen of Gomorrah Nay to speak all that can be said in one word for the honour and comfort of a Souldier God himselfe is called a man of warre Exod. 15 3. The Lord is a man of Warre and JEHOVAH is his Name I tell you Gentlemen there is not to an honest eye in these sad and dismall daies a more gallant sight then a valiant and religious Souldier Religion causeth courage in a good cause and giveth an high lustre to it especially in men of birth and place what true English heart is not warm'd with joy to see the living flames of ancient valour conjoined with generous minds in Gentile bloud but if thereto be also annex'd Religion I dare say to a trulie pious loyall eye the Sun it selfe is not more glorious Gentlemen your enemies call you Cavaliers a name as they take it of great reproach els you may be sure they would not call you by it will you give me leave in briefe to give you your owne Character or at least the Character of such a man as everie of you ought to be and as we your friends and servants in Christ desire to conceive of you why listen to it 't is this A complete Cavalier is a Child of Honour a Gentleman well borne and bred that loves his King for conscience sake of a clearer countenance and bolder looke then other men because of a more loyall heart He dares neither oppose his Princes will nor yet disgrace his righteous cause by his carriage or expressions He is furnished with the qualities of Piety Prudence Iustice Liberality Goodnesse Honesty He is amiable in his behaviour couragious in his undertakings discreet and gallant in all his executions he is throughly sensible of the least wrong that is offered to his Soveraigne and is a professed enemy to all Rebells the aimes of his sword are onely to dissever the malignity of those forces that have conspired the ruine of Monarchy and Innocency he feares no evill thing to come upon himselfe but contemns all dangers that look towards him he dares accept of deaths challenge to meet it in the field and yet can embrace it as a speciall friend when it comes into his chamber where he is alwayes making provision for its better entertainment in a word he is the onely Reserve of English Gentility and ancient valour and hath rather chose to burie himselfe in the Tombe of Honour then to see the Nobility of his Nation vassalaged the Dignity of his Countrey captivated by any base domesticke enemy or by any forraigne fore-conquered foe This is a compleat Cavalier and if any of you be not according to this Character believe me you are not right nor the men you ought to be And so much Gentlemen for the first particular in your description I come to the second and that is your Commission in the word sent shall be sent namely by him who hath power from God to send and that is only the King or Supreme Magistrate all the Commissions which God grants to Souldiers are signed by the Kings hand who is as Moses was the mouth of God unto his Subjects in things of this nature and such a Commission so signed doth constitute a lawfull Souldier the Lesson is this A right Commission makes a lawfull Souldier Yea a right Commission makes the Warre it self lawfull to the Souldier although it were undertaken by the Prince upon unjust grounds for the Subjects duty is to mind his owne call rather then the Cause for though in matters of Religion we disclaime and abhorre the Doctrine of blind obedience yet in matters of State and order wee professe allowance of it quae supra nos nihil ad nos things above us belong not to us if we pry into the reason of Princes undertakings we may prove our selves to be the Busie-bodies whom as we noted before the Apostle yoakes with murderers and evill doers And I thinke these times doe sufficiently declare the due concatention of these conditions But as I was saying though the Justice of the Kings Cause which is as cleare as the Sun to all unlesse to those that are given up to blindnesse and to believe lies were not so manifest and apparent nay were it an unjust cause on the Kings part yet were it not so to those Souldiers that are authorized by him for according to the point a right Commission makes a right Souldier and that cannot be given by any nor derived from any but the King