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	power_n	3,232	5	4.9654	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35606	The case of compelling men to the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper considered and authority vindicated in it, by the rules of the Gospel, from the common and popular objections against it.		1684 (1684)	Wing C898; ESTC R21713	36,298	59

the same doth the King govern us and we have no more right to quarrel the commands of the one than Children and Servants have to repine and murmur at the precepts of the other which they never have but when either Parents or Masters exercise an authority that doth no way belong to them 2. Which in our case is not done for Secondly it is done by those whose power reacheth to these things and who stand accountable to God for them The power of Kings in Spiritual Matters was never questioned that I know of in the Christian Church till Pride and Ambition began to corrupt it's Faith and poison it's Doctrine and till Rome began to aim at a Spiritual Empire as well as it had had a Temporal one The Doctrine of discarding Kings and Emperours from any intermedling in Religion was first hammered in the Conclave and thence our Classical Divines have fetched it and I wish it were the only instance in which they symbolize with those that they so lowdly declaim against I am sure the Kings of Israel supervised and when occasion was reformed matters of Religion and the Church and the better that they were the more they interested themselves and employed their care about them and embalmed their Names more by that than all their Arms and glorious Atchievements And when the Apostle commands Christians to pray for Kings that they might live honest and godly i. e. religious lives under them he certainly thought their influence might be greatly helpful thereunto And the truth is I do not well see how Kings and Governours can blast their honour more and more blacken their own name than by looking only to their own grandour and honour without any concern for his whose Vice-gerents they are by living themselves in glorious and Ceiled Houses but letting that of God lye neglected and wast as the expressions in the Prophet are Certainly when the great and final Audit comes and when the Kings and Princes of the world come to stand before him by whom they Reigned who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords one great Inquiry will be how faithful they have been to him their great Master and how much or how little they have consulted his honour and interest in the world and those doubtless will give their accounts with most joy to themselves and most acceptation to him that have been tender of his Church and consulted the benefit of his Religion that have been nursing Fathers to the one and tender of the other and used their power to keep men in their duty to him and his Laws as well as to their own And the Governours in the Church and those that are over us in the Lord they watch for our Souls says St. Paul and must give account for them Heb. 16.17 So that we must not think that our Governours exceed the bounds and limits of their own power when they make Laws about Religion and tye us to observe the services of it or that they do these things arbitrarily only and to exercise their power over us no neither of these are true their power reacheth to these things and they are bound by their great Lord to take all the care they can of them and therefore we must excuse them they do but their own duty to God which they compel us to do ours 3. And that this is really our duty and tyed upon us by the Laws of the Gospel is the third Consideration and will adde another reason to vindicate them in compelling us to it If this thing were contrary to the Gospel then we might justly complain of their rigor and severity or were it left wholly indifferent then we might raise objections and pretend invasion of our Christian liberty by these Laws as tragically as we do in the like cases But when it is a thing plainly and expresly commanded by our Saviour and tyed upon us as a constant and standing service of Religion to be observed and practised by all Christians until his second coming again as it is most plain it is if we will either consider his own words or St. Pauls after him then certainly there cannot be the least room for an objection in this matter Those that say the least of the power of Kings and Temporal Governours do say they are obliged to see that the precepts of God be observed and kept by men and that they are to inforce the Laws of Religion by their own and when it is for their purpose will boldly call for this exercise of their power summon the Temporal Sword and Arms when their own Spiritual ones are too weak and be ready to anathematize and curse those powers that in this come not to help the Lord against the mighty It it be their own 〈◊〉 of Religion why then it is the Scepter of Christ whom all Kings are bound to support and if it be any thing that they lack to have observed why then it is the Lords cause and the supporting of it is no less than fighting the Lords battel for which the highest Praises and Panegyricks are too little And therefore methinks men of this temper and who are yet known to have acted still upon this principle should for shame cease to complain cry out against the Government for using their power in that which they themselves allow the exercise of it lawful in and not condemn it when it compels men to nothing but what the Laws of Christ have made their necessary duty 4. Yea and fourthly which is as really their interest and advantage as it is their duty for so it is in this as well as in all other precepts of the Gospel they are real instruments of our happiness as well as instances of our obedience I cannot now stand to enumerate all the benefits and advantages of receiving the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper and I need to do it the less because the Church hath done it for me I will only recite the words in her Catechisme which are sufficient at this time The strengthning and refreshing out Souls by the Body and Blood of Christ as our Bodies are by the Bread and Wine And certainly if any thing can be an Apologie for the present exercise of power in our Governours in constraining men to an observance of this service this may that it is a matter of pure kindness and nothing but their own gain that they are compelled unto they are severely dealt with indeed in this and a mighty wrong sure is done them when they are compelled to be made happy and good All the world hath ever granted it lawful and innocent nay prudent and wise to direct and govern those who are not able to govern and choose for themselves Parents restrain the ignorance of Children and think it no crime to whip them to that duty and exercise which they know to be good for them and Guardians do the same thing too for their Minors what they are assured is for their