Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A25201
|
A sermon preached at the assizes held at Leicester for that county on the twenty third day of March, 1681/2 by Nathaniel Alsop.
|
Alsop, Nathaniel.
|
1682
(1682)
|
Wing A2904; ESTC R23629
|
20,188
|
36
|
properly given to that Duty which is owing unto Parents by the best Classical Writers and the Honouring of a Prince I have read in a Learned and Reverend Author called an Elicit Act of Religion meaning I suppose such a Worship of God as the Image-worship of the Romanists would be were there no Divine Precept in bar against them rendring their Practice unwarrantable and superstitious But we need not strain a Point to that nicety If Loyalty be a Duty indispensible and an important Act of Christian Religion we have a considerable Advantage against our Adversaries on both hands when we dare joyn Issue with them upon the Observation of one of the Chief of Gods Moral Laws as to which our Papist Adversaries and Dissenters also are notoriously defective It 's Honour enough that our Reformed Church of England hath been here acknowledged the sure Conservatrix of the Principles of Loyalty and was never wanting in the Practice of them in the worst of Times and this is it that makes her the Butt of all the Factions at which they shoot their bitter Arrows This draws upon her those Loads of Calumnies and Contempts which the Subtile Underminers of the State stir up and unwary Persons are loud and clamorous in they know not why Otherwise what reason is there imaginable why some that pretend an Agreement in all Doctrinals with her and would go further should yet labour her Ruine and would rejoyce to see her laid waste and desolate but only because she is known to be an impregnable Defence to the Monarchy and lawful Government of the Nation and cannot as others do give a Dispensation for Resistance We may see it by experience among our selves how the Honour of God is promoted and carried on in the same Company and by the same Proportions with that to the King Who are they that frequent the Places where his Honour dwells and that set forth the Glory of God and declare his Majesty and Mercy by Acknowledgments Praises and Confessions made unto him with due Solemnity and Reverence and make a Conscience of these things of offering these Sacrifices to his Honour as of old they offered their Goods and Cattel Are they not such generally as pay a dutiful Respect unto his Representative on Earth such as are polish'd and refin'd by Education and know the Laws of Observance and Regard And it 's agreeable to the Genius of a Gentleman if not byassed by some Fanatick Interest to assert the Publick Rites of Worship whereas the Lower Part of Men especially where they have received any Factious Impressions are not sensible of any the least touch of Conscience for these Matters neither for Gods Honour nor the Kings I shall add but few Words more What remains shall be according to my proposed Method to shew the Obligation to this Duty from the Argument contained in the last Clause of my Text which is the Promise of a very desirable Blessing but it implies a severe Threatning in case of Disobedience no less than an utter Abscission and Cutting off from the Land of Promise And this must needs have a mighty Influence upon that People especially and all others in general The force of the Inference lies chiefly in the Threatning Thus God elsewhere invites them with a gracious Promise Isa 1.19 If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the Land but he drives and compels in the next Words with a terrible Threat But if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be devour'd with the Sword The Curse of God hanging over the Head of a contumacious and rebellious People is enough to reduce them if there be any fear of God in the Place This is the proper Season for God himself the King of Kings to appear and interpose when his Vicegerents here on Earth shall be set at nought Here is dignus vindice modus a proper Care for the All-ruling Providence and a Recompence worthy of a Divine Revenge and it hath seldom failed upon such Exigencies although it hath been sometimes slow I shall leave but one Example with you but it is such an one as I think we may challenge all History Sacred and Humane to match it it is in the 16th of Numbers in this very People of the Jews and not far from the time when this Law was given them At the beginning of the Chapter Corah and his Company rise up against Moses and Aaron the Chief Magistrate and Chief Priest As Religion and Loyalty are still found in Conjunction so the King and Priest have the same Common Enemies And what was the Cause that stirred up these Men to mutiny It was plainly the Levellers Grievance the Imparity of Gods People the hated Eminence of a Superior and the heavy Yoke of Government For thus they vent their Discontents against Moses and Aaron ver 3. Ye take too much upon you seeing all the Congregation are holy every one of them wherefore then lift ye up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord Here 's now the Masque of Sedition with all its Paint and Varnish on It is the Lords Cause it is for freeing the Congregation of the Lord from the Slavery which Moses held them under for asserting the Liberties of an Holy People And as if the meer joyning with the Faction had been Holiness it self it is alledged they were all holy every one of them Moses looks upon this Face of Affairs as of a dangerous presage and makes his Appeal to God the Ordainer of Powers and the Revenger of Kings he joyns Issue with the Mutineers upon the Point and is content the Divine Right of Government should be tried by the Success which God should give to the Sacrilegious Enterprise of these Men. And what was the Event Why the Question under debate received a dreadful Decision by the Overthrow and Destruction of the Rebels and the Righteous God describ'd as it were the Nature of their Sin by some Lines of the Punishment as appears by the Sequel of the Story Here is now an Example of Gods appearing for his own Institution and let any one of them who have used to talk so loud for Gods owning their Cause and Outgoings with their Arms match it if they can It 's confess'd in common Proceedings and the ordinary Course of Providence an Argument from Success is very fallacious but in the Case as it was here when the very Point under Trial was the Divine Right of Superiority and Rule and this put upon the Issue to be maintained by God by Miracle or else to fall and when God shall answer to the Appeal in such an extraordinary manner here I take it in such a Case as this Gods Works are as instructive and infallible as his Word and in all such Events we may say as Pharaoh's Magicians did This is the Finger of God a Finger by which he writes his Will unto us as plain and legible as ever he did upon the Tables of Stone to Moses as legible as is the Precept it self for whose sake I have alledged this Example Now therefore knowing the terrors of the Lord let us all my Brethren be persuaded and exhorted to have a care that we never provoke Almighty God by our crying Sins to send forth his Judgments any more upon this People and Kingdom Let us who value our selves in being thought the Loyal and obedient Subjects endeavour by a godly and upright Conversation to redeem the Profession of Loyalty from the evil Slanders of such as seek occasion to reproach it Let us serve and honour our King with the greatest Zeal and Duty that we owe but our God infinitely more Let us endeavour to live as far as is possible without the suspicion of Vice as well as free from its contagiou that so we may break and discredit that most false ill-natur'd and uncharitable Distinction which the Pharisees and Hypocrites of the Times have taken up when they set the Kings Loyal Subjects on one Hand and the Sober Godly Party of the Nation on the other And let them who have been defective in this kind shew forth the Fruits of Repentance having enjoy'd a Pardon and Indempnity for their Crimes past let them learn at length to be ingenuous and if it be possible to convert their Rancour into Duty let them but begin now to love honour and obey the King much because much hath been forgiven them Let them never cast a Thought back upon Aegypt or its Flesh-pots nor chew the Cud upon those luscious Morsels of Rapine and Sacrilege which for the ease and health of their Consciences they have been forced to disgorge And above all let them ever mind it not to relapse into their old Folly of turning Faith into Faction and Religion into Rebellion From which and all the Plagues and Punishments attending it Good Lord deliver us by the Merits of thy dear Son To whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all Honour ascribed the Kingdom Power and Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS