Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
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A04838
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A sermon preached at St. Pauls March 27. 1640 Being the anniversary of his Majesties happy inauguration to his crowne. By Henry King, Deane of Rochester, and residentiary of St. Pauls: one of his Maiesties chaplaines in ordinary
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King, Henry, 1592-1669.
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1640
(1640)
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STC 14970; ESTC S108029
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21,721
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64
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It was a vaunt of the Romane Empire and perhaps true enough that Solem utrumque currere in imperio suo cernebat The rising and setting Sunne were the extent of their Territory in the length But God onely is that great King in whose hand are all the corners of the Earth The Sonne of Man is Sole Lord of the Princes of the Earth Vnto Him the Ancient of daies gives such Dominion and such a Kingdome that all People Nations and Languages and all Powers serve and obey Him For the other that is the Popes Supremacy a thing not dream't of in the Churches purer times it is a pride ill comporting with the Mitre and much mis-becomming Peters Successour If Christ disliked the strife for precedence amongst the Disciples determining the controversie so that he who made himself Least was by Him reputed Highest we may well conclude that Princeps Apostolorum Prince of the Apostles was an attribute never begot in His purpose nor form'd in his Schoole In what Luciferian forge then may we believe that stile of Princeps Regum Lord of Kings and Disposer of Kingdomes was shaped If the Master allow not his Apostles to quarrell amongst themselves for Place can we thinke he likes that the Apostolicall See should justle with His Annoynted for the upper-hand whereas Pindarus could say that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Kings are the Highest upon Earth and a better Authour Super Imperatorem non est nisi Deus qui fecit Imperatorem God onely here is above the Emperor And yet He who is Servus Servorum A Servant of Servants in nothing but his Name hath by his aequivocall practise long attempted the lifting up his Triple Mitre above the Crown as Neptune once his Trident above Jupiter And whensoever He lists to abuse the Throne by setting his owne Chaire where that should stand He will abuse Scripture to make it good If He list to play at Foot-ball with Crownes spurning them into what Gole he pleases as once Celestin 4. settled the Crowne and then kickt it off the Emperor Henry 6. head He hath an Omnia sub jecisti pedibus ejus for his warrant Thou hast put all things under his feet If He will make the neck of the King his foot-stoole as Alexander 3. used the Emperour Frederick Barbarossa at Venice he quotes the Psalme for it Thou shalt tread the yong Lyon and the Dragon under thy feet If he desire to lift up his own Candlestick made of the Alchymy of swelling Ambition and Avarice wrought by the Jesuits the best Chymists of the world enchased and imbossed by the Canonists with titles of the richest Blasphemy which the tongue of men or divels could devise Dominus Deus noster Papa Our Lord God the Pope * Vice-God One who Non obstante jure Divino in despight of Gods Law does what he lists I say if he desire to set his counterfet Candlestick higher then any of the Seven Golden Candlesticks and then make his own dim Candle whose modest light ought To shine in good works before men blaze like a Comet to out shine the lights of Earth and vie with the Host of Heaven for Lustre he can finde Text for that too so did Innocent III. from Gods creating Two Lights one to rule the day the other to rule the night and blushes not to make Himself the Greater So that whereas Christ whose Vicar he calls himself is content with the stile of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Starre of the morning no proportion of light nor measure of brightnesse will serve as Emblem of his Power but the Sunne Not to trouble you farther if he desire to pare the Authority of Princes and make the King his Subject He will with Boniface 8. and Iohn 22 pervert this very Text I have set Thee over the Nations and Kingdomes The note is altered much since the daies of Gregory the great He as He acknowledgeth to Theotista the Emperour Mauritius his sister tooke his Bishoprick then as a Donative from the Emperour Eccè Serenissimus Dominus Imperator fieri jussit He was pleased to make him so Now in requitall his Successour takes upon him to make the Emperour Formerly the Pope was wont to begin His letters to Kings with this salutation Salutem in eo per quem Reges regnant Health and safety be to you in Him by whom Kings reigne now he salutes in his * own Name for he takes on him to dispose the Kingdome and command the King It was not so from the beginning Aaron the High Priest never quarrelled with Moses for the place but obeyed him in all things as Prince and Ruler And Salomon exercised his authority upon Abiathar thrusting him from his Priest-hood and bestowing it upon Zadoc Indeed the best Popes ever submitted to the Regall Authority one of them gives the reason Eleutherius by name who in an Epistle of his written to King Lucius sometimes King of this Island which Epistle is recorded amongst the Lawes of Edward the Confessour tells him Vicarius verò Dei estis in regno He was within his own Kingdome Gods Vicar set up with absolute power to governe the Person and the Place Church as well as State which is the just meaning of being Set over Nations and Kingdomes But much of your wonder concerning the Popes Ambition will be taken off when you shall know the Consistory to be a Competitour in the Canvase for Superiority above Kings Quotquot Christi aut Ecclesiae nomine censeri volunt Disciplinae sese subjiciant As many as are Members of Christ and of His Church must subject themselves to the Consistorian Discipline neither Emperour nor Bishop excepted And Beza is as zealous as he in the cause Quis tandem Reges aut Principes c. Who shall exclude Kings or Princes from this Non Humanâ sed Divinâ dominatione not Humane but Divine domination of the Presbytery Nay some of this rigid Sect have gone so farre that as the scornfull Bramble in the Parable of Ioâ—ham scratcht and contended with the Better Trees for the Kingdome they make the people scramble with their Prince for prioriâ—y and carry it too Populus potior Rege And another Populus Rege praestantior etiam major Populi in legibus ferendis summa potestas Lex Rege Populus lege potentior The People greater and better then the King The Law above the King the People above the Law Reade they that list they are the words of Buchanan I know I may take up the Prophets words in this particular I tell you a wonder which many whilst they heare will not believe But it is an undenyable truth Let the Allegations I have produced out of their owne Books testifie for me that I slander them not Whence you may plainly discerne that these two jarring
est Politia sub uno Bono Which Aristotle confesseth to be the most Divine and Ancient kind of Gubernation Vetustissima Divinissima Regis gubernatio Search the whole volume of holy Writ from Moses to the Iudges and from them to the Kings and tell me whether you finde more then One successively designed by God to be the Prince and Ruler of the people Indeed there is good naturall reason for it Should the Account of time be regulated not by the Sunne alone who is the Prince and Monarch of the Skie but by the joint Motion of the other Planets which were a kind of Oligarchy or by the Starres of the first Magnitude which are Optimates Coeli the Peeres of Heaven and were an Aristocracy what disorder would then creep into our Kalendar But how great would that Confusion prove if those Gregarian sparks those Plebeian lesser Starres which people the Skie and onely glimmer by that Contribution of Light which they receive from the greater Luminaries should have a predominant influence upon our Seasons To prevent therefore such irregular mischief the Creatour gave the rule of the Day to the Sun alone And He who kindled that Glorious light in the Firmament Set up also the King to governe by the splendour of his Authority upon Earth as being the Light of our Israel and Gods Lieutenant or so Plato calls Him as God amongst Men {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Nor onely amongst the people of God but in all other Nations of the world was the Authority at first singly invested in the King if you will believe Iustin the Historian Principio rerum gentium nationumque imperium penes Reges erat And though Livy reports that Regum imperium grave visum est Vnius Dominatio populo Romano displicuit the Romans disliked their Government under One and thought they should do better to put the command of the Common-wealth from a King to a Senate or to Consuls yet as Gregorius Tholosanus well observes in a very short time they deerely repented the errour of their alteration Magna vis necessitatis urgentis quae etiam superbissimos cogat stultitiam suam fateri aliquando resipiscere For not nine yeares after upon the insurrection of Manlius Octavius one of Tarquins Race they were forced to put the Government to one againe whom they stiled Dictatour who was indeed a Monarch for his time freely and absolutely commanding all for so is his Office described by the writers of the Graecian affaires as Gregor. Tholos observes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} T is true that once in the Carthaginian warre against Hannibal the giddy multitude made two Dictatours Minutius Rufus and Fabius Maximus But upon the losse of that part of the Army which was led by Minutius whose pride and rashnesse by dividing himself from the counsels or help of his Colleague hazarded the whole Common-wealth they would have no more Dictatours then Fabius Nor did they ever after ordaine more then one even untill the time of Iulius Caesar who retained the stile of perpetuall Dictatour reducing the Roman Government according to the first forme into one Hand onely exchanging the title of King into Emperour I adde no more of this Plutarch tels us that in perillous times nothing so much conduceth to the safety of a State then Si unus in principatu unâ sententiâ liberâ impuni magistratu fungeretur so Gregor. Tholosanus renders him That one only exercised a free independent and uncontrol'd Authority over all Whereas commands depending upon divers votes beget distraction and ruine And as this course prevents warre so it best conserves peace Pacis interest omnem Potestatem ad unum transferri Indeed if there be but one soule to informe the naturall body why should there be more then one to rule the body of a State In the predominance of the will or the phantasie or the affections or the passions above reason which should be Soveraigne we see what a distracted Man is made Is it not the same in a State when phantasticke or wilfull or turbulent spirits rise up to contradict their Prince and disturbe a Realme I shut up this Point in the conclusion of Tacitus Unum imperii corpus unius animo regendum videtur T is best to trust the care of the Kingdome to that one whom God hath appointed over it I have set thee over the Nations and over the Kingdomes which imports the Latitude of His Power and is my third point It was an old complaint that ill Glosses corrupted good Lawes Those perversions have long since crept into the Booke of God and mens particular interests have distorted the Texts thereto their owne practises This Scripture hath not escaped the Rack of some Interpretations which would straine it to authorize an Vniversall Monarchy and others who from this foundation would raise the Popes Supremacy above Kings For the first I deny not the words taken in their primitive meaning import an Universall Soveraignty But it is in Him onely whose Inheritance is the Heathen whose title is King of Kings that is the Sonne of God for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} His Kingdome ruleth over all But to extend this to any sonne of Man is contrary to Gods purpose and above mans capacity When Nebuchadnezzar is termed King of Kings 't is in respect of the many Tribuâ—ary Kings under him Quia multis magnis Regibus imperabat And when Cyrus professeth The Lord of Heaven and Earth had given him all the Kingdomes of the Earth All is taken Synecdochically for the Greatest or the Most So though Tidal be called King of the Nations he was only King of the Scythians But where this stile is left indefinite and absolute it belongs onely to Christ If then such a one as Salmander call himselfe Omnipotent or the Emperour of Bisnega delight to be stiled Magnarum Provinciarum Deus Dominus Orientis Austri Septentrionis Occidentis Maris The God of great Provinces Lord of the foure quarters of the Earth and of the Sea or the Persian Frater Solis Lunae siderum particeps Brother to the Sunne and Moone Kinsman to the Starres or Solyman the Turkish Emperour Lord of Lords I shall not much wonder These are such who in their timpanous excrescent Titles imitate Him of whom the Spirit of God testifies {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} A mouth was given Him which spake high Blasphemy But if any who should know Christ better and understand their owne limits are so excessive in their claimes as if all the world were made for one alone as Iuan de Puente settles it upon the Catholick King by assuming so much to themselves they detract from Christ usurping upon his right I deny not divers Kingdomes and severall Nations may be united under one Scepter