Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	king_n	lord_n	people_n	4,953	5	4.9858	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55347	Passive obedience, stated and asserted In a sermon preached at Ampthill in Bedfordshire, upon Sunday, Septemb. 9. 1683. being the day of thanksgiving for the discovering and defeating the late treasonable conspiracy against His Sacred Majesities person and government. By Tho. Pomfret, A.M. rector of Ampthill, and chaplain to the Right Honourable Robert []ar, of Atlesbury.	Pomfret, Thomas, d. 1705.	1683 (1683)	Wing P2800; ESTC R217677	14,786	37

duties The First is to pay unto God an hearty Acknowledgment for his tender and particular Providence over the King and indeed in him over us all since in his Preservation we injoy our Lives and Estates our Liberties and Religion The other duty is to set a mark upon those Men and such Principles which would have murdered the best of Kings and the most Loyal part of the Nation under a pretence of defending Liberty and Protestant-Religion How far this wretched Plot it self is believed or whether believed to be the Plot of those Men against whom it is both Charged and Proved I cannot say but this I will say that the Practice of what they would have done is so like what by their Preachers they are taught to do that if we do but consider by whom the Dissenters are led it is no wonder at all to find them so ready to do mischief And as I was saying at first that their Principles do so naturally tend to Rebellion that they can never be made good Subjects but by renouncing their Masters and their Doctrines So I now add that if there be any one of them that is kind to the Government it is the goodness more of his Nature than Persuasion if they do believe their own Guides I shall instance but in a few but those few such as were notoriously active in the destruction of the Royal Martyr and have been Teachers of the People in Conventicles since the Return of his present Majesty Mr. Calamy in a Speech at Guild-Hall upon the calling in of the Scots to assist the Rebellion to encourage so Pious a Cause did assure his Auditors that had he himself as many Lives as Hairs upon his Head he would Sacrifice all in that Quarrel A blessed President for a factious People Nay and as to that very Principle upon which this wicked Plot was grounded viz. the pretence of preserving Liberty and Religion he delivers his Opinion That for Peace and Reformation it is commendable to Fight against the King's Command Pag. 29. Theses The Pope in his Chair could not have determin'd more magisterially nor to more mischievous purposes And indeed the Jesuit and the Presbyterian proceed by the same measures for to gain the People to Fight against their Prince they will at any time make over to them the Sovereignty And then as Mr. Calamy asserts all Loyal Subjects as now it is pretended are the betrayers of Religion and Liberty and those says he that fought under the King's Banner did endeavour by all bloudy and traiterous ways to subvert Religion and Property So that here is Treason found in the King against his Sovereign Lord the People Therefore he declares the Rebellion to be so much God's Cause that whoever dyed in it would dye a Martyr Sermon to the Peers Mr. Jenkins another of the same holy stamp after the War which he had Preach'd up was ended and he had leisure to calculate the Thousands both of Men and Money consumed upon that fatal occasion and had also weighed the King's Bloud and all his Subjects that had been Murder'd against the Covenant he sets down his Opinion at the foot of the Account that the removal of the King and Bishops was a sufficient payment for all the ●oin and Treasure that had been spent in those ●●●traction●●● So that it is no wonder at all that these men value not the bloud of Kings nor their People Reformation and Protestant-Religion will answer for it all And for that you shall hear Mr. Baxter too who has still the guidance of Consciences and is Master of a Conventicle declaring That where Religion and Liberty are the question it is not to be question'd at all but that the King and all that adhere to him may be murder'd Upon this account perhaps he declares to the whole World by way of boast that he had Preached Thousands into the War and that his own being ingaged in it was the greatest outward Service he ever perform'd to God Pag. 141. H. C. Nay and lays down that infamous as well as Treasonable Principle That if he had taken up Arms against the Parliament his Conscience tells him he had been a Traytor A rare Christian Conscience for a Preacher of Christ and one that had taken the Oath of Allegiance to declare it to be Treason to defend his Liege Lord. But this Gentleman was better read in Scripture than our Laws and indeed one would think so that shall see him urge all those Texts of it that were intended for lawful Governours to press Obedience to the usurped Powers those he said could not be ●●ed without damnation but the King might for Loyalty in this Man's Divinity is the unpardonable Transgression For Rebellion against the King he thinks needs no Repentance or no Mercy and therefore says he having searched into the matter of Fact as to my concernment in the War I am so far from Repenting that I could not forbear doing the same under the same circumstances And truly Custom in this matter is a very fine thing he that has practised so well against one Prince can tell how the better to deal with another And as to Princes in general the late Dr. Owen that had so many Disciples at his feet has declar'd That when Kings command unrighteous things and their Subjects do obey them no doubt but the destruction of them both is just and righteous And it is no doubt if these Casuists could determine it as readily by the Sword as with their Pens And though indeed they have Hypocrisie and Impudence equal to their Wickedness and would bear the World in hand that they are Harmless and Innocent yet from them it is that the Easie and the Zealous are taught to desie Government and put in practice the worst Principles of their Masters I need not instance in any more particulars Calvin and Beza Knox and Buchanan have taught the whole Herd of Dissente●● such horrible things that as they themselves ha●● manag'd them have in all Nations prov'd to the continual disturbance of the Peace and to the Murder of a great many Princes as does appear in History And indeed the first Man in Story that spake evil of Kings was a Separatist St. Ambrose tells us of Lucifer Caralitanus who spoke hard things of Constantius the Arrian Emperour but the Father observes that he was one that did Separate from Church-Communion After that the Popes of Rome and with them since have joyn'd the Presbitery both the one and the other having declined from Primitive Piety fell off from their Loyalty also and reckon it no Sin to Curse or Rebell against their Prince But in all the first times of Religion for some hundreds of Years the Christians by their Books and by their Bloud gave Testimony that Kings are in no case to be Conspired against or Resisted Hence Tertullian tells us for the honour of Christianity that when there was a Rebellion made against a Bloudy and a Cruel Emperour out of pretence for Religion and the Publick-Good the Christians then would not be insnared into Evil by the glorious Baits of Liberty and Religion And to conclude Christ never gave any other Rules than what are in the Text Obedience and Patience the one when the Prince commands as he should and the other when he commands what he ought not And thus we either obeying or suffering like Christians shall dye like such and He that calls us to Grace will one day bring us to Glory and Crown both our Doings and our Sufferings with Peace and Glory and Immortality FINIS