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
B12524	The elegant combat or, the mutuall entertainement between the two learned and famous Frenchmen Monseiur [sic] Du Moulin and Monseiur [sic] De Balzac Extracted out of the originall, by Robert Codrington master of arts. And dedicated to the truely ennobled Master Anthony Mildemay.	Du Moulin, Pierre, 1568-1658.; Codrington, Robert, 1601-1665.; Balzac, Jean-Louis Guez, seigneur de, 1597-1654.	1634 (1634)	STC 7322.5; ESTC S113614	11,434	32

Truth which the Son of God brought into the world the violence of provoked people haue no more power against it then the Winds haue power to change the beames of the Sunne This is it why I make my prediction quite contrary to yours and instead of the declining which you speake of I assure my selfe that it wil flourish and chase away the darkenesse of this Age by the brightnesse of it And I wonder how you can delude your selfe with such a hope in a time wherein our Religion receiueth so great Increase in the low Countreyes and in Germany and wherein the Greeke Churches doe range themselues vnder our Confession being drawne thereunto by the euidence of the Truth This without doubt is one of the praises which you reserue for the King of Sweden to haue contributed to so good a Worke of whom besides his Valour and successe you will aduance his Clemency and for this that in places conquered he hath vsed no violence against the Roman Clergy but letteth euen the Iesuites themselues alone although they teach that it is lawfull to kill Kings and that many parricides haue come out of their schooles who hauing lately called this King Anti Christ doe now in their Colleges make declamations to his praise And if our Churches in France doe suffer any Diminution this proceeds not from the Cause of the contrary party but from the Auarice of some of our Nobility who wound vs in giuing eare to that TIBIDABO which the Deuill propounded to the Sonne of God for there are found of thosewho are alwaies armed againstiron but not against siluer and in this golden Age a bag of Pistolls is of great weight being put into the balance doth often times ouerweigh the Conscience But the Church is no more weakned by that then a Mans body is by hauing vomited a worme or spit forth some filthinesse So Pride Vanity and Auarice are more conueniently lodged in the temples of Idols then in the house of God True it is that those of your party do talke of our Religion with great Contempt as of a desperate Cause which notwithstanding from the lowest is often mounted vp on high they speake of vs as if we intended to mine the Alpes with a pin or pierce a Lyon with a festraw They blacke vs ouer with iniuries doing as the enemies of the Gospell did of old who clad the Martirs in the skins of wilde beasts to animate the dogges to teare them for they transforme vs into monsters to prouoke the people against vs but the sonne of God hath prepared vs against this reproach and he himselfe hath passed by the like proofes I doe rely vpon your goodnesse and your Wisdome that you will support me if I be sensible on this side for you are too cleare sighted not to discerne the weakenesse of your Cause hauing a long time liued at Rome from whence with the examples of vices came the decisions of the Faith where the Iewes enemies of the name of Christ doe liue in peace but the Christians the faithfull are burned where in the time of Lent the Shambles are shut and the Stewes are open where the Penitents whip themselues in publike for the sins of others where is exercised a marchandise of Annats of benifices of dispensations and pardons and I remember that I have reade in one of your letters that it is excellent good sinning there and that you distinguish the Roman religion from the Popes Court for feare the corruption of the one should not stirre vp an euill presumption of the other although that this Court doth rule religion A spirit excellent as yours should not suffer it selfe to bee inknarled with such senselesse opinions But you haue a more delieate religion then that which the vulgar do beleeue or your Church doth institute nor doe you fasten vpon any thing which is not agreeable to your humour I make no doubt but you scorne the hypocondriacall deuotion of those who adore bones who kissing and apparelling Images and tossing up and downe their hallowed graines doe make their prayers by tale in words they vnderstand not Without doubt you doe not thinke it good that Seruice should be said in an vnknowne tongue as if God were become barbatous to Men or as if the Pope had forbidden God to speake in French you haue seene at Rome many Altars where the Pope hath set vp pardons for a 100 and 200 thousand yeares with as many quarantines and power to draw a soule out of purgatory you haue seene there the madnesse of the people comming two or three hundred miles to a Iubily to obtaine the remission of their sins which God hath presented vs at home by the preaching of the Gospell nor are you ignorant out of what stocke the Pope drawes this his liberality for he heapes vp the superabundance of Fastings whippings pilgrimages of Saints and Monkes and conuerts the same into payments for the sins of others When at Rome you did refresh your chamber with a Gale sufficient to driue a Ship and did mount into your Caroach onely to crosse a street you had not then the leisure to studie these superstitions But if you had then the Curiosity to take the missall and therein to read the Cautels and the Rubricks which doe prouide against inconueniences in case the winde should carry away their God or the Rats should haue eaten Iesus Christ or the Priest should vomit him vp you would excuse vs and say certainely it is no maruaile if this poore people do finde these things of so hard digestion and ill agreeing with the maiestie of the Sonne of God On two points principally we insist namely on the Succession of the Pope into the Apostleship and on the primacy of S. Peter and we could neuer yet obtaine that any Man would shew vs the Institutions of these two things out of the word of God But enough of these matters from which I would haue abstained if you had not pushed me forward I subscribe to the rest of your letters Obedience vnto Soueraignes is a thing both iust and necessary To find in our owne Religion or in that of the Kings occasions of Rebellion is to raise vp tumults to defend religion by courses condemned by Religion it selfe who being necessitated in their owne particular affaires doe hope to finde ease by moouing the fishpoole and to saue themselues in the middest of Confusion The Cause of God was neuer aduanced that way Moses had power to strike Egypt and their King with great plagues yet would he neuer draw the Israelites out of Egypt without the permission of their King I am of opinion that in Ciuill Causes it is more expedient for the people to haue a bad master then to haue none at all how much more hauing a good and clement King are wee obliged to be faithfull to him who in pardoning vs hath not done as they doe who help forward their clemency by disdaine esteeming him that hath

offended them vnworthy of their choller but hee hath followed his naturall inclination which hath carried him not only to pardon but to benefit also so that to be conquered by him is profitable Furthermore I haue alwaies beleeued that there is no worse estate then Anarchy in which euery one is a slaue because euery one is a master and where the excesse of liberty is the Cause of Slauery For this liberty bringeth licence and licence confusion and confusion slauery As the hand would be an vnproper instrument were the fingers all of an equall length So a multitude of equall persons moue not without inconuenience your maxime that it is dangerous to change euill lawes is true out of the businesse of Religion To subiect a Mans selfe by docility vnto lawes which lead unto hell is to breake the lawes of God and such who haue made those lawes shall not protect before God those who obey them But where nothing is to bee considered but the losse of goods and life it is better to vndergoe that vniust yoake then to bee exempted from it by troubling the publike peace by rebellion against the Soueraigne for the force of humane lawes doth not consist in this that they are iust but in that they are lawes and are made by them who haue Authority and albeit they haue something of vniust in them yet it is iust to obey them There are to bee found Estates who haue a long time liued in peace and prosperity vnder vniust Lawes well obserued and others liuing vnder iust Lawes but ill obserued haue fallen into ruine and confusion This peace and prosperity will bee allwayes found more durable in a Monarchy than in any other forme of State for it is the onely ciuill gouernement which imitates the gouernement of the vniuersall World where there is but one Master and all other States when they are much growne must of necessity come vnto it But of Monarchies subsisting at this day this of France hath the preheminence in Antiquity and good Lawes the moouing humour of our nation inclined to change is a cleere proofe that the State is well composed for it had long since ouerturned the State if the Pillars were not firme and the building well compacted Being borne vnder this Monarchy wee desire the prosperity of it and that the crowne of our King may be like the crowne of Egges which daily doth increase by Age. If our religion were generally receiued in France the Kings Maiestie should bee more exalted and his power should the more enlarge it selfe For the Pope should no more pretend to haue power ouer the life and the Crowne of our Kings and should vaunt no more that hee might depose them there should not in France bee any more iustice than that of the Kings Causes bred on this side the Alpes should not be called ouer to Rome The Clergie should bee subiect to Ciuill Lawes and should bee tryable before the Kings Iudges The Kingdome should no more bee exhausted of money that goes to Rome for Annats dispensations and pardons So many Lands possessed by the Clergy and thereby fallen into mortmaine should owe vnto the King the same seruices and duties which other Lands doe which are possest by the Nobility In briefe I dare say that the principall reason of the hatred which men beare to vs is because we defend by the Word of God the right of our Kings against the vsurpation of the Popes who make them kisse their pantofles and vnder the shadow of penance doe impose vpon them corporall punishments But this is our vnhappinesse that as the holy Scripture is a booke which is hid from Kings so in that which concernes the liberty and independance of their Crownes they learne nothing but from them whom the Pope holds bound by the belly But this is too much The pleasure which I take in entertaining you makes mee forget that I write an Epistle and not a booke and hath carried me beyond my limits that clause wherein you say that I would giue vnto a sedition the apparence of a iust warre hath urged me to take some kind of reuenge which hath bin this to tire you with the length of my letters yet it shall not hinder mee from admiring the beauty and the force of your wit I honour the guifts of God wheresoeuer they bee found on the other side also I hope that this little sharpenes which I haue vsed shall not depriue him of your fauours who honours you and who is Your most humble and affectionate seruant Du Moulin FINIS