Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	know_v	lord_n	people_n	2,617	5	4.7305	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69859	A discourse, shewing that it is lawfull, and our duty to swear obedience to King William, notwithstanding the oath of allegiance taken to the late King. By a divine in the north	Divine in the north.	1689 (1689)	Wing D1618AB; ESTC R26717	12,497	35

Subjection to the Emperour in being however unlawfully he came to the Throne Nay I shall give you an instance to the quite contrary Philippus Bardas was Emperour and if we believe Eusebius was Baptiz'd and a Christian and therefore must certainly be mightily endear'd to the Christians who never before had any Emperour of their Persuasion but Emperours who most of them did persecute them in most cruel manner Now certainly the loss of this Emperour would trouble and offend them and render them if ever disaffected to the Government of the succeeding Emperour Decius who depos'd him and murthered him yet for all this so far were they from disowning the present Emperour who yet came so unworthily to the Throne that they thought it their duty to pray for him and not only for him but afterwards for Gallus who succeeded him and was in every respect as bad as he He chased away saith Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria in his Letter to Hermammon the Holy men which pray'd for Peace and his prosperous state and so together with them he banished the Prayers continually poured unto God for him Eus l. 7. c. 1. And surely we cannot think that those undaunted Champions of Christianity could to save themselves be in the least guilty of any Flattery or idle Complement no sure but this they did being thereunto oblig'd by the Holy Scriptures wherein we are commanded to pray for Kings that we may lead a quiet and godly life under them and surely we have still greater reason to pray thus for the worst of Kings because they are in greatest danger of being disturbed and disturbing other And if indeed the Practice of those primitive Christians had been such as to disown their Authority and seek to disturb them and yet at the same time to pray for their peaceable Reign their Prayers and Practice being so diametrically opposite they would certainly have been lookt upon and that justly too as the worst of men and no way to be trusted And though the blasphemous Complement of Boniface to Phocus was more than Flattery and an espousing of his barbarous way of accession to the Crown yet if he had only been subject to him and pray'd for him when seated upon the Imperial Throne he had done no more than all good Christians then did and might lawfully doe Honest St. Martin did much better who drinking to his Deacon and not to the Emperour let him see though indeed too haughtily tartly and publickly not like a Courtier nay nor a prudent Bishop whose likelier way to work upon the Emperour had been to have reprov'd him deliberately calmly and privately this other being the ready way to have disoblig'd and quite lost him let him see I say that his unjust way of coming to the Crown was displeasing to God and did deserve his Fatherly Correption and Penance Now this was all that he did and this is that which every Ghostly Father of a King ought and may doe to admonish him of his sins and yet at the same time own his Supremacy And I look upon him who in those great Debates here in England betwixt the Houses of Lancaster and York about the Crown did live peaceably under that King that was possest of the Throne to have been far the better Subject and better Christian than he whose turbulent Spirit was still for Change and was the occasion of so much War and Bloudshed And thus I have made it out that not only a Conquerour but an Usurper is to be owned as Supreme and to be set up by God when possest of the Throne But then the Query is how far he must be possest of the Throne that we may acknowledge him set up by God and desist from any farther opposition It 's true we have no such Revelations now as were in the times of the old Testament and therefore may still be at a stand when such Kings are fully set up by God yet if I may spend my weak judgment upon it I look upon a King to be thus set up when the former King and his Heirs being either banish'd kill'd or imprison'd the other is seated upon the Throne and so far either for fear or favour own'd by the Nation that there is wholly a Cessation of Arms or a very inconsiderable Opposition made And if God hath the same Power still which to question were Blasphemy to pull down and set up Kings when he pleases and yet since we cannot expect any Revelation from him when he does it either this Rule which I have here mentioned is the only way to know it or else I would gladly know what other Rule we have to know it by But here it will be objected That if Possession gives Right the Law must be quite laid aside and he that hath the strongest Arm will have the greatest Right and so this Doctrine will be an Inlet to all Oppression and Violence To this I answer That grant a King cannot be punish'd and dispossest by due course of Law and that therefore God if I may say so is forc'd for the punishing and dispossessing of Kings to use extraordinary means which may tantamount to a Law yet sure the Law is sufficient to take cognisance of Subjects to punish them and redress their Grievances one to another and therefore they need not and ought not to take these extraordinary means which God sees often fit only and necessary for the punishing and dispossessing of Kings But of so intricate a nature is the Matter in hand that I have scarce unravelled one doubt when presently there arises another At this rate say you even a good King instance King Charles the Martyr may be destroyed by an Usurper and yet the Usurper is not to be questioned but own'd as Supreme Certainly God never intended to destroy a good King so and therefore if an Usurper destroy such a King he cannot be of God's setting up and therefore is not to be owned as Supreme To this I answer That I cannot without sorrow reflect upon the horrid Murther of that gracious Monarch a Prince of unspotted Integrity who was certainly the best of Kings who for his Piety of Life might rid with the strictest Votaries and for the manner of his Death with the most famed Martyrs and so far was he from bringing a Curse either upon the Nation or himself by any Sin of his own that if ever the Goodness of a King could attone for the Sins of his People his certainly could have done it But it is not allways the sin of a King which is the cause of such Overturnings but very often indeed the sins of the People though God knows we are too apt to lay the blame off our selves and slander the Lord 's anointed And this happens according to Samuel's Menace to the People that if they should doe wickedly they should be destroy'd both they and their King. God is many times pleased for the Punishment of a sinfull People to remove good Kings from