Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	king_n	power_n	receive_v	3,501	5	5.7564	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64424	Tertullians apology, or, Defence of the Christians against the accusations of the gentiles now made English by H.B. Esq.; Apologeticum. English	Tertullian, ca. 160-ca. 230.; H. B. (Henry Brown)	1655 (1655)	Wing T785; ESTC R18180	106,345	228

at Sirmion the seventeenth of March the chiefest Priest of that goddesse this venerable chiefe of the Evnuches the soure and twentieth of the same Month of March with the horrour and impurity of the bloud he spilt and which came from the wounds hee made in his body rendred his vowes as hee was wont for the preservation of this Prince after he was dead O sleepie Courtiers O tedious dispatchers whose tarrying the cause that Cybele was not acquainted sooner with the Emperours death truly Christians could not choose but make derision at such a goddesse But had it beene in the power of Jupiter to dispose as he thought good of the Empire of the world would he have suffered the power of the Romans to put his Isle of Creet insubjection Would you think the remembrance of the cave of Mount Ida with the noise the Corybantes made in beating on their head attires and playing on their cymballs to hinder those childish cries from discovering him again the acceptable smel of the breath of his nurse should not obliege him rather to oppose himselfe against this conquest would hee not have preferred the place of his buriall before all the greatnesse of the Capitol would hee not rather have enclined to have raysed up above all the countries of the earth that which enclosed his ashes would juno have taken it well that Carthage which she preferred before samos should be overcome and destroyed even by the race of AEneas if I bee not deceived Hic illius Arma Hic currus fuit hoc regnum dea gentibus esse si qua fata sinant jam tum tendetque fovetque Englished thus by John Ogleby out of Virgill Here her Arms and here Her Charriot was that this Earth sway should beare If Fates permit she fosters and intends This unfortunate sister and wife of Jupiter had not the credit of changing the decrees of destiny Fato stat Jupiter esse To Fate was Jupiter himself conforme And yet the Romans have not done them so much honour although they put Carthage under their power against the designe and desires of Juno as to an unchast whore and a villanous and an infamous Larentine now of all the gods you honour its certaine there are many of them that have raigned in the would if they had now the power to give Empires and kingdomes whilst they were kings and commanded maen of whom recived they their authority what gods have beene worshipped by Saturn and by Jupiter it may be t was some Sterculus to whom they gave immortallity because the first found out the invention of dunging the earth but hee lived since their death with the people that inhabited the territory of Rome If any of your gods have not had the Soveraigue power heere below in their time there were Kings that rendred them not as yet Divine honours because they were not as yet acknowledged for gods from whence it followes that it belongs to others then to them to give kingdomes because there were kings established a long time before they consecrated these deities But see how ridiculous a thing it is to attribute the greatnesse of the Romans to the merit of their piety and care had or Religion seeing their Religion became much more pompous and costly since their estate grew powerfull and their dominion enlarged For although Numa was author of all your superstitious mysteries yet in his time the Romans served their gods without Images and Temples their Reliligion being then void of all costlinesse and ostentation their ceremonies then neither rich nor magnificent wee saw not as then Capitolls raised up to Heaven but onely altars of turfe made in hast as served occasion and upon necessity te vessels for their sacrifices were as then but of earth from whence onely issued the odor of all the bloud of the beasts which were sacrificed Engraven representations of the gods then no where appeared For the Greeks and Tuscans who first invented the art of making carved images to the gods were n ot as then spred in the City of Rome It s true therefore the Romans were powerfull before they were Religious neither was it their piety that was the cause of their greatnesse For how should the care of Religion become great to them who owe their greatness to impietie and sacriledge for it I bee not deceived Kingdomes and Empires are established by disorders of war and increase by victories Wars and victories ordinarily produce the taking and ruine of Cities Which things cannot bee done without offending the gods Fury at the same time indifferently assaulting the walls of Temples and Cities slaughters involving Priests and Citizens without distinction and the Souldier eager for his prey sparing no more sacred things then prophane In which regard the Romans committed as many sacrilodges as they obtained conquests triumphed as often over their gods as Over men all Images of strange and captive gods yet in your Temples remaine as so many booties taken form people overcome by you and these gods suffer their enemies to worship them giving an endless Empire to them whose outrages they should rather have punished then recompensed after that sort their sacrilegious flatteries But as it 's unprofitable to honour these gods that have neither sense nor knowledge so it 's as little dangerous to offend them Certes true pietie permits not to believe that this people who as aforesaid encreased Religion by scandalizing it againe scandalized Religion in labouring for its judgement should get this great power to which arrived by any reverence borne by them to divine things neither is it otherwise in like manner to be believed that those Nations whose Countries conduced in their being conquered by them unto the Roman greatness before losing their Countreys should bee destitute of all manner of Religion CHAP. XXVI REturne then into your selves and examine if it bee not more likely that it 's hee distril utes Kingdomes he to whom the World belongs which kings governe and whom Kings depend upon who command on the Earth that it 's hee that hath ordained the change of Emperours in the sequell of times and course of ages who was before all times and who from times hath composed the ages that raiseth up estates and makes them fall from their greatness whom men have acknowledged for their Authour before they had established among them any societie confess your errour Rome this Citie heeretofore a field in ancienter then any of your gods she had her Laws reverenced before she built this vast and magnificent worke of the Capitol The Babylonians reigned before the creation of your high Priests The Medes before that of the fifteene men whom you propounded to consult on the Sybils Bookes The AEgyptians Assyrians and Amazones possessed great Empires before we heard speak of the Saliens Lupercals and Vestall Virgins After all if the gods of the Romans disposed of Kingdomes the Jewish Nation who alwaies neglected these kindes of Deities had never formed an Estate powerfull