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	people_n	power_n	4,914	5	5.4287	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56751	The unlawfulness of stretching forth the hand to resist or murder princes with the principal cases about resistance, considered, in two sermons : the first preacht upon the last thirtieth of January, the other, upon the day of thanksgiving, for the deliverance of the King and kingdom from the late treasonable conspiracy / by William Payne ...	Payne, William, 1650-1696.	1683 (1683)	Wing P912; ESTC R22908	23,488	47

necessary for the good of the World and for his Wise Designs so far they shall go and no farther but like Earthquakes and Tempests and Inundations we have no security against them but from the Providence of God These are the chief Cases and Objections against the Duty of Non-Resistance or not Stretching out the hand against the Lord 's Anointed and by these however Magical Delusions the Evil Spirit of Rebellion has been conjured up and still haunteth this Nation and fills it with Plots and Treason with Noise and Mischief and Disturbance and I know no such way to lay it from ever rising again as a full and clear Resolution to those fore-mentioned Cases which I have endeavoured to give As to the other way of Stretching out the Hand to take away the Life of the Lord 's Anointed that is so Horrid and Villanous that one would think it should have none to defend it though it have had some to commit it but there is no cause of interest so bad but it has had its Advocate and when ever there has been a Clement or a Ravilliac there has been a Confessor to incourage if not a Pope and an Infallible Orator to commend him the Opinions of the Jesuits are well known to be positive in the case and others have fashion'd their Weapons at the Forge of those Philistines which are to take away the Lives of Princes and though they are not come to Consecrate Daggers for the purpose and that because they are against the Ceremony rather then the Villany yet Pistols and Blunderbusses are thought to be Blessed Instruments for doing the great Work though they expect not to be Sainted for it and adored in Heaven yet they expect what they will hardly allow the Saints themselves to have their Images erected upon Earth and Statues set up to their honour and to the memory of such Noble Atchievements Like Herostratus they design to make their Names Famous by doing some extraordinary Villany and by daring to be wicked beyond the rest of Mankind The committing such a Wickedness as others are astonisht to think of is to be an Hero in Villany and they want nothing to out do what has been ever done or ever thought of but with the old Gyants to pluck God out of his Throne and so to put down all Rule and all Authority and Power both in Heaven and Earth I cannot think that Men can seriously argue themselves into such Villanies as these but it must be the very same thing that makes the Devil a Rebel to God which makes these Men Regicides and Traytours to their Sovereign a Proud an Envious a Discontented and Diabolical Spirit that infinite Power cannot awe nor infinite Goodness oblige but the Devil and a Scotch Conventicler are such Sophisters as can set off the most Horrid Villany and represent this as an Heroick Bravery and a sort of Gallantry that the Grecians and the Romans thought fit to be rewarded with Crowns and Statues and publick Insigns of Honour the killing of Tyrants was thought a Vertue like that of Hercules who destroy'd abundance of those Monsters nihil usitatius quam eorum interfectores in Caelo collocari says Tully ad Attic. l. 14. Ep. 16. Harmodius and Aristogiton and others were commended to the Skyes for these very Performances and not only the Greeks and the Romans did thus commend and honour them but even in Scripture Jael and Judith and Ehud Barack and Deborah and those Jewish Deliverers of their Country stand all upon the Records of Fame and the Divine Approbation for Murdering Kings and Tyrants that were the Enemies of God and his peculiar People and when the Cause of God and His People the Cause of Religion and Conscience is the great thing that is to be carried on who that has a Zeal for those would not do any thing that is necessary for so glorious an end Lucifer himself could hardly have instilled worse Principles into the Angels when he persuaded them to turn Devils and to forsake their first Station I shall give a particular Answer to the three Parts that it consists of 1. As to the Grecians and the Romans when they affixt such worthy Names and Honours to the killers of Tyrants they did not mean by Tyrants their lawful Princes but Vsurpers that by force and violence assumed an unjust Power to themselves contrary to the regular form of Government that was established among them such as had no just Title to rule by the Laws of their Country but invaded the Rights of their proper Governours and over-turned the whole Frame of the Common-wealth and against such as these they were empowered by the establisht Laws of their Country by the Lex Solonis among the Greeks and the Lex Valeria among the Romans and if any were guilty of doing this to their lawful Governours it must be reckoned as part of that Ferity and barbarous Ignorance which was in those Nations before Christianity taught them better when to kill themselves was accounted as Heroic a Vertue as to Murder a Tyrant but the Soberest amongst them taught otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Aristotle in his Politicks the very Doctrine of Non-Resistance and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Plutarch Agis Cleom. The very words almost of David It is not lawful to stretch forth the hand against a Prince and we have Examples even amongst both the Greeks and Romans of the same Punishment against those who were concerned in the Murder of their Princes that David inflicted upon the Amalekite for the Death of Saul 2 Sam. 1.16 Alexander put him to Death who kill'd Darius that was his Sovereign though he had been a great while Alexander's Enemy and so did Domitian Nero's Freeman who was but accessory to his Masters Murdering of himself 2. As to the comparing this Villany with the actions of Jael and Judith and Ehud and others who destroyed those their Enemies with whom they were in a State of War or had particular Commissions from God to authorize them in the doing such extraordinary Atchievements they might as well and with as good reason argue that because David kill'd Goliah and destroy'd the Philistines that therefore he might have taken away the Life of Saul nay that he might have made no more to kill him then the Lyon and the Bear for God's Anointed are accounted by these Men but as a sort of Wolves and Tygers and Beasts of prey that ought to be destroyed and they may as well make use of the Example of Abraham to Sacrifice and Murder their Children when they please as of Jehu and others in Scripture to destroy the House and Family of their Sovereign 3. As to the last thing that they may do anything for the carrying on a good Cause and Design as they will be sure to call what they are promoting that if it be the Work of the Lord and the maintaining the true Religion and the Protestant interest the keeping out

to fly out into open Resistance and Rebellion against their Governours Yet he that was appointed by God's immediate Command to be the next Heir of the Kingdom and was anointed by Samuel to that purpose 1 Sam. 16.12 So that in his Life and Safety the common Welfare and Interest the Safety of the whole Kingdom of Israel was concerned Nay he that was the General of Israel and a great Officer under Saul and to such Magistrates more inferiour than David was in Israel some People are for giving a Power to restrain and resist the Superiour Magistrate yet he under these Circumstances which if any would make it lawful and justifiable to have done otherwise he then only fled away and made no manner of Resistance to Saul who was his Prince tho' he was likewise his unjust Persecutor And to shew that he did this out of Conscience and Religion and not for want of Power or Ability to do otherwise which is the only Reason that some men have against resisting God was pleased to put Saul into his Hands at the Cave in Engedi and to give him an Opportunity to have done what he would with him and the men that were then with him would have persuaded him That this was a Providence of God that shewed he would have the thing done 1 Sam. 24.4 And the men of David said unto him behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee Behold I will deliver thine Enemy into thine Hand that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good to thee How would a much less Providence have been thought enough to make this lawful and a sufficient Indication of the Will of God to some men who had no such promise at all as that was but David was a better Interpreter both of God's promise and of his providence too and he dared not touch the person or the Life of his Sovereign but only cut off the Hem of his Garment and for that his Heart smote him afterwards at the 5th verse It were well if some Mens Hearts would smite them who have cut off not the Hem of their Sovereign's Garment but his Royal Head from his Body and yet their Hearts are so harden'd that they have shown most of them but little Repentance for it But this was not enough David might have lost this Opportunity perhaps out of Unadvisedness or Imprudence and have been sorry for it afterwards or it might not have been so fit to have dispatch'd so great a Work at that time or he had not time to deliberate and consider well what was to be done with so lucky an Advantage Behold God tries him another time at Hachilah where Saul had pitched his Tents in pursuit of David who was in the Wilderness hard by There David in the Night comes with Abishai into the Camp of Saul and finds the Souldiers so careless and sleeping that he got into the very Trench where Saul lay sleeping with his spear by him stuck at his Bolster in the ground and Abner and his other Captains and Guards asleep by him Here Abishai indeed was in the mind of other men not to spare their Sovereign when they have got him into their power Then said Abishai unto David God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day now therefore let me smite him I pray thee with the spear even to the earth at once and I will not smite him the second time But David from the same Principles of Conscience and Religion that had restrained him before forbids any such thing as containing the most horrid Sin and Guilt in it and this also from a Reason that holds good as to all Sovereign Princes and Governours whatever And David said to Abishai Destroy him not for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords anointed and be guiltless This Example of David is very full and comes up to the greatest Cases and allows of no Exceptions that can well be thought of to this his general Principle and from that I shall offer to you these two things 1. The great Unlawfulness of resisting or drawing the Sword against the Sovereign Prince 2. The horrid Guilt of murdering him and taking away his Life Stretching out the Hand is a Phrase may fairly be understood of both those tho' I confess it is here principally meant of the later but 't is the First is generally the Cause of the other and the Principle that leads to it He that stretches forth his Hand so far as to resist his Prince will stretch it a little farther to murder him too if it be in his Power and he finds it necessary for his Designs I shall therefore first shew the unlawfulness of resisting the Prince or drawing the Sword against him and if we once make that good we secure him from all Attempts and Outrages upon his Life And this upon several Accounts 1. From the Practice and Example of the wisest and best Men who under the most hard and unjust Vsages the most cruel Sufferings from their Governors and in the worst Cases that can well be put yet always submitted patiently and never made use of any Force or violent Resistance against them I have prevented my self in the Instance of David which is so considerable as may serve for a full Example of this under the Old Testament tho' I might here mention the Behaviour of the Jews under the Bondage and Cruelty of Pharaoh who when he opprest them unmercifully and murdered their Children as soon as born and gave them the greatest Provocations to have freed and revenged themselves yet they never made any Attempts that way tho' by Pharoah's own Confession they were more and mightier than the Egyptians themselves Exod. 1.9 But I choose rather to offer you what more concerns us Christians tho' it would be a great Shame if we should come short in this of the murmuring and stiff necked and Rebellious Jews and that is the Example of Christ and his Apostles and the Primitive Christians which as they are Patterns to us of all those Vertues that they taught and commanded so especially of Loyalty Obedience and patient Submission to the Governours which God had set over them and this is more remarkable in them because they happened to live under such Governours as were the most notorious for all manner of Wickedness and especially for Cruelty and Injustice and that most particularly to them as well as others and yet even under Tiberius whom Suetonius relates as a Man infamous not only for Cruelty to his nearest Relations but even for such Lusts and Debaucheries as were not fit to be related our Blessed Saviour shew'd himself a quiet and obedient Subject and paid Tribute at the Expence even of a Miracle Matth. 17.27 And under the Emperor's President which was Pontius Pilate he patiently suffered a most cruel and shameful Death that he was no ways worthy of and which he could have rescued himself from by a Legion of Angels had he