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
A96595	Vindiciæ regum; or, The grand rebellion that is, a looking-glasse for rebels, whereby they may see, how by ten severall degrees they shall ascend to the height of their designe, and so throughly rebell, and utterly destroy themselves thereby. And, wherin is clearly proued by holy Scripturs, ancient fathers, constant martyrs, and our best modern writers, that it is no wayes lawfull for any private man, or any sort or degree of men, inferior magistrates, peeres of the kingdom, greatest nobility, lo. of the councel, senate, Parliament or Pope, for any cause, compelling to idolatry, exercising cruelty, prastizing [sic] tyranny, or any other pretext, how fair and specious soever it seems to be, to rebell, take armes, and resist the authority of their lawfull king; whom God will protect, and require all the blood that shall be spilt at the hands of the head rebels. And all the maine objections to the contrary are clearly answered. / By Gr. Williams, L. Bishop of Ossory.	Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672.	1643 (1643)	Wing W2675; Thomason E88_1; ESTC R204121	92,613	114

unto the rules of justice when as The Law condemneth no man much lesse the King before his cause be heard And seeing such a competent Judge as can justly determine this controversie betwixt the King and his People or rather betwixt one part of his people and the other cannot be found under Heaven therefore to avoid civill warres and the effusion of humane and Christian blood and the prevention of abundance of other mischiefs That we ought not by any means to resist our Kings Proved both the Scripture teacheth and the Church beleeveth and Reason it self sheweth and the publique safetie requireth that we should transmit this question to be decided onely by him which is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and will when he seeth good bind evill Kings in fetters and their Nobles with links of iron CHAP. V. Sheweth by Scripture the Doctrine of the Church humane reason and the welfare of the weale publique that we ought by no means to rebell A threefold power of every Tyrant Three kinds of tyraunies The doubtfull and dangerous events of Warre Why many men rebell Jehu's example not to be followed 1. THe Scripture saith 1. By the Scriptures I counsell thee to keep the Kings commandement and that in regard of the oath of God that is the oath whereby thou hast sworne before God and by God to obey him Be not hastie to go out of his sight that is not out of his presence but out of his rule and government and stand not in an evill thing that is in opposition or rebellion against thy King which must needs be evill and the worst of all evils to thy King for He doth whatsoever pleaseth him that is Ecclesiast 8.2 3 4. he hath power and authority to do what he pleaseth Where the Word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him What doest thou or Why doest thou so And Solomon saith A Greyhound an Hee-Goat and a King Prov. 30.31 against whom there is no rising up there ought not to be indeed I will not set down what Samuel saith but desire you to read the place 1. Sam. 8.11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. where you shall see what the King will do and what remedy the Prophet prescribeth against him not to rebell and take up armes but to cry unto the Lord that he would help them And Saint Paul saith Whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God Rom. 13.2 and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation And Saint Peter saith that they which despise government 2. Pet. 2.10.12 and are not afraid to spoake evill of dignities are presumptuous and doe walke after the flesh in the lusts of uncleannesse and as naturall bruit beasts that are made to be taken and destroyed they speake evill of the things they understand not and therefore they shall utterly perish in their own corruption And Saint Jude in like manner calleth those that despise Dominion and speak evill of Dignities the very phrase of Saint Peter filthy dreamers Iude 8.10 11. that defile the flesh and therefore shall perish in the gainsaying of Corah This is the doctrine of God therefore Saint Paul exhorteth us not to rebell nor to speak evill of our Kings 1 Tim 2.2 be they what they will but first of all or before all things to make prayers and supplications for our Kings and for all that are in authoritie And I wonder what spirit except it were the spirit of hell it selfe durst ever presume to answer and evade such plain and pregnant places of Scripture to countenance disobedience and to justifie their rebellion And therefore 2. 2. By the Doctrine of the Church The Church of Christ beleeveth this Doctrine to be the truth of God for no man saith Saint Cyril without punishment resisteth the Laws of Kings but Kings themselves in whom the fault of prevarication hath no place because it is wisely said it is impiety therefore against the will of God to say unto the King Cyril in Iohan. l. 12. c. 56. Iniquè agis thou dost amisse for as God is the supreame Lord of all which judgeth all and is judged of none so the Kings and Princes of the earth which do correct and judge others are to be corrected and judged of none but onely of God to whose power and authority they are onely subject and therfore King David understanding his own station well enough when he was both an adulterer and a murderer and prayeth to God for mercy saith Against thee onely have I sinned because I acknowledge none other my superiour on earth besides thee alone and I have no judge besides thee which can call me to examination or inflict any punishment on me for my transgression And so the Poet saith Regum timendorum in proprios greges Reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis But you will object against Saint Cyril Obiect if it be impiety to say unto the King Thou doest amisse how shall we excuse Samuel that told King Saul he did foolishly and Nathan that reproved King David and Elias that said to King Ahab it was he and his fathers house that made Israel to sinne and John Baptist that told Herod It was not lawfull for him to have his brothers wife I answer 1. Sol. That by the mouth of these men God himself reproved them because these men were no private persons What the Priest or Prophet may do private men may not do but extraordinarily inspired with the Spirit of God to perform the extraordinary messages of God 2. I say as I said before that as Moses may correct and punish Aaron if he doth amisse so Aaron the Priest inregard of his calling may reprove and admonish Moses the chief Magistrate when he doth offend but so that he do it wisely and with that love and reverence which he oweth unto Moses as to his God not publiquely to disgrace and vilifie his Prince unto his people but modestly and privately to amend his fault and reconcile him to God and this is the work of his office which he ought to do as he is a Priest and not of his person which ought not to do it as he is his subject 3. Reason it self confirmeth this truth 3. By humane reason because the King is the head of the body politique and the members can neither judge the head because they are subject unto it nor cut it off because then they kill themselves and cease to be the members of that head and therefore the subjects with no reason can either judge or depose their King 4. 4. From the welware of every Common-wealth The event of every warre is doubtfull The publique safety and welfare of any Common-wealth requireth that the Subjects should never rebell against their King 1. Because the event of a rebellious warre is both dubious and dangerous for who can divine in whose ruine it shall end or which

be good he doth not punish the well-doer but loveth him because he doth well but if the Prince be evill Alex. Hales p. 3. q 48. memb 2. art 1. de offic subd erga Prine and punisheth the well-doer he hurteth him not but purgeth him and therefore he is not a terrour to him that doth well but the wicked ought to seare because Princes are appointed that they should punish evill Aquinas saith the faith of Christ is the beginning and the eause of righteousnesse and therefore by the faith of Christ the order of Justice is not taken away but rather setled and strengthened because as our Saviour saith It became him to fulfill all righteousnesse But the order of justice doth require that all inferiours should obey their superiours otherwise the estate of humane affaires could no wayes be preserved Thom. secunda secundae q. 104. art 6. and therefore by the faith of Christ the godly and the faithfull Christians are neither exempted nor excused but that they are tyed and bound by the Law of Christ to obey their secular Princes Where you see the Christian faith doth not submit the superiour to the inferiour contrary to the rule of justice neither doth it any wayes for any cause permit the power of the sword to any subiect to be used against his Prince because this inordinate power would turne to the ruine of mankinde and the destruction of all humane affairs which can no otherwise be preserved but through the preservation of the order of justice Indeed many times there may happen some just causes Wherein we may disobey and how for which we are not bound to obey the commands of our Magistrates as when they command any thing contrary to the commandements of God and yet then there can be no cause why we should withstand him that executeth the uniust sentence of our condemnation or requireth the punishment that an uniust malitious Magistrate under the colour of his power and authority hath most unjustly laid upon us because he hath as our Saviour saith unto Pilate this ordinary power from God which if he doth abuse he is to be refrained not by the preparation of armes and the insurrection of his subjects to make impressions upon their Soveraigne but by those lawfull meanes which are appointed for them that is Petitions unto him and prayers and tears unto God for him because nothing else remaineth to him that is guilty or condemned as guilty for any fault but to commit his cause to the knowledge of the omnipotent God and to expect the iudgement of him which is the King of Kings and the Judge of all Judges and will undoubtedly chastise and correct the iniquity of any unjust sentence with the severitie of eternall justice Barcl l. 3. c. 10. as Barclay saith These testimonies are cleare enough and yet to all these I will adde this one memorable example Berthetus in explicat contro ver Gallicanae cap. 7. which you may read in Berchetus and Joh. Servinus which tell us that in France after the great Massacre at Paris when the reformed Religion did seeme as it were forsaken and almost extinguished a certain King powerfull in strength rich in wealth and terrible for his Ships and navall Force which was at enmitie and hatred with the King of France dispatched a solemne Embassie and Message unto Henry King of Navarre and other Protestant Lords and commanded his Embassadours to do their best to set the Protestants against the Papists and to arme Henry the Prince of Navarre which then lived at Bearne under the Dominion of the most Christian King against his Soveraigne the French King which thing the Embassadours endeavoured to do with all their art and skill but all in vaine An er ample o a faithfull and excellent Subject for Henry being a good subject as it were another David to become a most excellent King would not prevent the day of his Lord yet the Embassadours offered him many ample fair and magnificent conditions among the rest abundance of money the sum of three hundred thousand Aureorum scutatorum French Crownes which were readie to be told for the preparation of the warre and for the continuation of the same there should be paid every moneth so much as was necessarie but Henry being a faithfull Christian a good Prince a widower and though he was displaced from the publique government of the Common-wealth and for his sake for the dislike the King bare towards him the King had banished many Protestants from his Countrey and had killed many faithfull Pastours yet would not he for all this lift up his hand against the Lords anointed Joh. Servinus pro libertat Ecclesiae statu Regni tom 3. Monarchiae Rom. p. 202. but refused their gold rejected their conditions and dismissed the Embassadours as witnesses of his faith to God his fidelitie and allegeance to his King and peaceable minde towards his Countrey Where you see this prudent and good Prince had rather patiently suffer these intolerable injuries that were offered both to himself to the inferiour Magistrates and to many other good Christians for his sake then any wayes undutifully resist the ordinance of God And surely this example is most acceptable unto God most wholsome for any Common-wealth and most honourable for any subordinate Prince for I am certain this is the faith of Christ and the religion of the true Protestants not to offer but to suffer all kinde of injuries and to render good for evill and rather with patience love and obedience to studie to gaine the favour of their Persecuters then any wayes with force and armes to withstand those that God hath placed in authority which must needs be not onely offensive unto God whose ordinance they do resist but also destructive to the Common-wealth which can never receive any benefit by any insurrection against the Prince 3. 3. Not for any tyranny that shall be offered unto us Though the King should prove to be Nerone Neronior worse then Phalaris and degenerating from all humanitie should prove a Tyrant to all his people yet his subjects may not rebell against him upon this pretence for if any cause should be admitted for which subjects might rebell that cause would be alwayes alledged by the Rebels whensoever they did rebell and whom I and many others should deeme a good Prince and most pious the Rebels would proclaim him tyrannicall and idolatrous And therefore in such a case The difference betwixt King and people to be determined onely by God when some men think their King most gratious and others think him vitious some beleeve him to be good others beleeve him to be evill shall we think it fit that the disaffected party shall presently with armes decide the controversie and not rather have the accused the accuser and the witnesses before a competent Judge to determine the truth of this question Surely this seems more reasonable and more agreeable

omnes Deos it is God alone in whose power Kings are kept which are second from him first after him above all men and before all Gods that is all other Magistrates that are called Gods Athanasius saith Athanasius de summo regum imperio q. 55. that as God is the King and Emperour in all the world that doth exercise his power and authority over all things that are in Heaven and in Earth so the Prince and King is appointed by God over all earthly things Et ille libera suâ voluntate facit quod vult sicut ipse Deus and the King by His own free will doth whatsoever he pleaseth even as God himselfe and the Civilians could say but little more Saint Augustine saith Simulachrum à similitudine dictum Isidot Videtis simulachrorum templa you see the temples of our Images partly fallen for want of reparation partly destroyed partly shut up partly changed to some other uses ipsaque simulachra and those Images either broken to pieces or burned and destroyed and those Powers and Potentates of this world which sometimes persecuted the Christians Aug. ad frat Maduar ●p 42. pro istis simulachris for those Images to be overcome and tamed non à repugnantibus sed à morientibus Christianis not of resisting but of dying Christians See the duty of Subjects or a perswasion 〈◊〉 Loyalty which is a full collection of the Fathers to this purpose and the rest of the Fathers are most plentifull in this theam and therefore to the later Writers Cardinall Alan saith but herein most untruly that the Protestants are desperate men and most factious for as long as they have their Princes and Lawes indulgent to thier owne wills they know well enough how to use the prosperous blasts of fortune but if the Princes should withstand their desires Card. Alan in rep ad Iustit Britannicam c. 4. or the Lawes should be contrary to their mindes then presently they break asunder the bonds of their fidelity they despise Majesty and with fire and sword slaughters and destructions they rage in every place and do runne headlong into the contempt of all divine and humane things which accusation if it were true then I confesse the Pretestants were to be blamed more then all the people of the World but howsoever some factious seditious Anabaptisticall and rebellious spirits amongst us not deserving the name of Protestants may be justly taxed for this intolerable vice yet to let you see how falsly he doth accuse us that are true Protestants and how fully we doe agree with the Scriptures and the Fathers of the purest age of the Church in the Doctrine of our obedience to our Kings and Princes I will only give you a taste of what we teach and to begin with the first reformer Luther saith no man which stirreth up the multitude to any tumult can be excused from his fault though he should have never so just a cause but he must goe to the Magistrate and attempt nothing privately Sleidan Commentar l. 5. because all sedition and insurrection is against the Commandement of God which forbiddeth and detesteth the same Philip Melancthon saith though it be the Law of Nature to expell force with force yet it is no wayes lawfull for us to withstand the wrong done us by the Magistrate with any force yea Melanctgon apud Luther to 1 p. 463. though we seeme to promise our obedience upon this condition if the Magistrate should command lawfull things yet it is not therefore lawfull for us to withstand his unjust force with force for though their Empires should be gotten and possest by wicked men yet the worke of their government is from God and it is the good creature of God and therefore whatsoever the Magistrate doth no force ought to be taken up against the Magistrate Brentius saith The rule of a Prince may be evil two waies that the rule and government of a Prince may be evill two wayes 1. When hee commandeth any thing against the faith of Christ as to deny our God to worship Idols and the like and herein we must give place to the saying of the Apostle It is better to obey God then men but in this case the subiect must in no way rage or rise against his Magistrate but he should rather patiently suffer any evill then any way strike againe and rather endure any inconveniences and discommodities then any wayes obey those ungodly commands 2. The Prince his government may be evill when hee doth or commandeth any thing against the publique Justice of which kinde are the exaction of our goods or the vexation of our bodies Brentius in re spon-ad artie rusticorum and in these kindes of injuries the subject ought rather then in the former to be obedient to his Magistrate for if hee steps forth to armes God hath pronounced of such men He that smiteth with the sword shall perish with the sword Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury together with the rest of the bishops and most famous Divines of this Kingdome saith if Princes shall doe any thing contrary to their duties God hath not appointed any superiour Judge over them in this world but they are to render their account to God which hath reserved their judgement to himselfe alone and therefore it is not lawfull for any subjects how wicked soever their Princes shall be to take armes or raise sedition against them but they are to powre forth their prayers to God Cranmer in lib. de Christiani hominis institut in whose hand Kings hearts are that he would inlighten them with his spirit whereby they might rightly to the glory of God use that sword which he hath delivered unto them Gulielmus Tindall a godly Martyr of Christ when Cardinall Lanio's sonne did leade the Lambes of Christ by troopes unto the slaughter doth then describe the duty of subjects according to the straight rule of the Gospell saying David spared Saul and if he had killed him he had sinned against God for in every Kingdome the King which hath no superiour judgeth of all things and therefore he that endeavoureth or intendeth any mischiefe or calamity against the Prince that is a Tyrant or a Persecuter or whosoever with a froward hand doth but touch the Lords anointed he is a rebell against God and resisteth the ordinance of God as often as a private man sinneth he is held obnoxious to his King that can punish him for his offence but when the King offendeth he ought to be reserved to the divine examination and vengeance of God and as it is not lawfull upon any pretence to resist the King Tindall l. de Christiani bominis obedient so it is not lawfull to rise up against the Kings Officer or Magistrate that is sent by the King for the execution of those things which are commanded by the King for as our Saviour saith Hee that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth