Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	great_a	king_n	right_a	5,175	5	6.1100	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96832	The dressing up of the crown. In a sermon preached at St. Edmunds Bury in Suffolk, May 17. 1660. When His Majestie was there solemnly proclaimed King of England, &c. By Laurence Womock.	Womock, Laurence, 1612-1685.	1660 (1660)	Wing W3342; Thomason E1029_2; ESTC R208908	18,651	31

so far from following his example that they take liberty at their pleasure to transform Princes in to Tyrants and that they may spoil them of their Kingdoms they alienate the hearts and affections of their Subjects and absolve them from their Allegiance But observe the cunning of their practices They allow not Subjects to withdraw their obedience or duty from their Prince by no means that were against a divine Right an execrable injustice but to free the Subject from such a guilt the Pope unkings the person of the Prince and then the people no longer owes him duty Thus the Cardinal instructs the people as the Popes Curate Non permitto ut Regi non pareas quod esset contra jus Bellar. Cont. Bar. cap. 31. Divinum sed facio ut qui tibi Rex erat non sit deinceps tibi Rex Regi rejecto Vicarius Christi obedientiam exhiberi prohibet But Christ hath surrogated no Officer in his Church to practise such black Arts or exercise such a Vicarious power for the advancement of his Kingdom nor will he acknowledge such Instruments to be his but rather the Devils Vicars whose usurpation and arrogance they imitate And I wish some of those that do pretend to Reformation did not justifie the Church of Rome in this particular for I must do them that justice I find the more ingenuous amongst them at least if we may believe them do disclaim such Doctrines and abominate the practise There is such a vicinity such a relation betwixt God and the King that commonly they are served and disobeyed together If you read of an Insurrection 't is Psal 2. 3. against the Lord as well as against his Anointed In Davids time those who did blaspheme God did slander the Psal 89. 50 Edit Leiturg foot-steps of his Anointed also And in Isaiahs time those who bade defiance to their Prince did at last fly as high as there was any Majesty to be affronted they spit their poyson in the face of Heaven it self Isa 8. 21. And how is it possible but the dishonour put upon the King should reflect upon God himself For the King is a Coin of Gods own impression and stamping He saith By me Kings reign and I have said ye are gods The Pro. 8. 15. Psal 82. 6. Prince hath Gods image and superscription ingraven upon him Indeed his Majesty is the only visible image that God hath set up of himself to be worshipped and yet I would not have you turn your Prince into an Idol but to perform what you find enjoyned by Christ and the Holy Ghost and the Apostles in Holy Scripture Render unto Cesar the things that are Cesars saith Mat. 22. 21 Prov. 24. 21. 1 Pet. 2. 17 our Saviour Fear thou the Lord and the King saith Solomon Fear God and honour the King saith St. Peter But suppose the King will not comply in the reformation and settlement of Religion Why if we speak of Reformation the question will be who is fittest to judge as having the best assistance and advantages to discern what is fit to be reformed In the great Council of Ephesus the Bishops address themselves thus unto the Emperour for settlement of Religion Supplicamus vestrae Majestati ut fidem immotam custodire sanciatis They supplicate but have no Commission from their great Master Christ to levy war and put a force upon their Soveraign In this case the Church of God is allowed no other weapons but Preces lacrymae prayers and tears Defendenda Religio est à privatis omnibus non occidendo sed mortendo non saevitia sed patientia non scelere sed Lib. 5. c. 20. fide saith Lactantius Religion is to be defended by all private persons by laying down their own lives not by attempting the lives of others not by cruelty but by patience not by treachery but by a constant and innocent profession of the Faith Thus did the blessed servants of God this was their faith and practise in all the purest ages of the Church They loved Revel 12. 11. chap. 6. 9. not their lives unto the death but were slain for the word of God and for the Testimony which they held And in this case is it not enough that the Apostle saith If we suffer with Christ we shall also reign with him adding withal That if we deny him he will also deny us And truly Rom. 8. it is a very great degree of our denial of him to refuse to bear this part of his Cross when his wisedome and providence shall think fit to impose it upon us when to shift it off our selves we lay it upon the shoulders of our Soveraign whose Crown entitles him to a Supremacy of command but does not inthral him in a subjection to the people And thus you have my reflexion upon the Crown in the second notion of it as it is the Ensign and Ornament of Monarchy 3. I must make a third reflexion upon it though it be a very brief one as it is distinguished from other Instruments that have relation to the Royal Office the Scepter and the Sword for all these three the Crown the Sword the Scepter are the Instruments of a King to which we owe respective duties The Scepter alwayes supposed to be a just and * For the King can do no wrong right Scepter must measure our actions to that therefore we owe obedience And because the King bears not the Sword in vain therefore to the Sword we owe fear And because the Crown entitles the person that wears it unto Majesty it requires of veneration we must therefore pay honour to it If this had been such a prediction as we find that touching Hazael which put the great Prophet into a bitter passion of weeping to utter it 2 King 8. 12. That his Sword should flourish in his hand and be bathed in your heart-blood that it should triumph in the slaughter of your innocent Babes and in ripping up your women great with child and other bloody outrages This had been very dreadful how just soever in the eyes of Heaven to you But we have a God of mercy and his Vicegerent resembles him in this vertue The King of our Israel is a very merciful King if by any gracious concessions his Majesty can possibly ptevent it he desires not to have his Sword amongst his own Subjects but his Crown to flourish II. The second General Part. But how is this to be accomplished That shal be our next enquiry Without question 't is our duty to do something to this effect 'T is not to be expected that all should come immediately from Heaven and the hand of God Here is a blessing from Heaven insinuated in the Text It shall flourish and Divine providence doth offer fair to make it good But we are concerned 't is our bounden duty to contribute our indeavours and use all the best means we can to accomplish it That the

are ungodly saith Elihu Job 34. 18. Curse not the King no not in thy thought saith Solomon But we have railing Shimei's whose tongues are spears and arrows swords and rasors full of deadly poysons and set on fire of Hell They durst do that against their dread Soveraign which the Arch-Angel durst not do against the Prince of Devils They durst bring against him many Jude v. 9. rayling accusations These are your godly men of the late Edition though Saint James saith if any man seemeth to be religious and bridleth not his tongue this mans Religion is vain James 1. 26. But it hath been the practise of these men to go a gleaning in the holy Scriptures and shutting their eys against the light of clear and express commands they retire into the shades of obscure Prophesies and serve their base and unworthy ends out of such dark passages as they understand not for did they understand them they would know they signifie nothing to their purpose Out of this Quarry they pick up stones to throw at the Crown and dazle the Authority of their Soveraign I insist the longer upon this because Rebellion which is as the sin of Witchcraft use to begin as Witchcraft doth in mutterings and murmerings of the lips and the Prince is wounded first in Pulpits and Pamphlets and Corners ever murthered by the tongue in his Reputation before he is murdered by the Ax or Dagger in his Person And let no man think to excuse this insolence by alledging that some of the Prophets did make bold with the Majesty of some Princes For were those Princes never so notoriously wicked those Prophets did sin if they had not a special and immediate commission to reprove them in such rude language And therefore Saint Paul convented before a person cloathed with Authority because he had called him whited Wall and threatned that God should smite him upon admonition he recants his rashness and condemns himself by a sentence of holy Scripture and is sorry for his error Act. 23. 5. For the Crown of Authority is not to be aspersed with foul language but to be drest up with lauds and acclamations to the person of the Prince 2. It is to be drest up also by praises and thanksgivings rendred to Almighty God on the Kings behalf For this we have an Apostolical exhortation in the place foremention I exhort that supplication and thanksgivings too be made for Kings 1 Tim. 2. 1 2. And the holy Ghost hath prompted another Divine Poem to be penn'd for such occasions The King shall rejoyce in thy strength O Lord so that 21. Psalm begins and the conclusion is this Be thou exalted Lord in thine own strength so will we sing and praise thy power And doubtless such as understand and value so great a blessing will heartily bless God for it 3. You must dress it up with an honourable Militia Solomons Throne was supported by Lions and he saith the Throne is upheld by Judgment taking the word in the severest sense when occasion doth require it Without a Militia the Sword and a fair train of Artillery to attend and dress it up the Crown will stand but for a golden Cypher it may serve other mens ends to swell the accounts of their ambition and avarice but it can neither protect the best Loyalty from oppression nor defend its own just Rights from usurpation and violence The holy Ghost therefore in that Celebration of the Kings Majesty and Glory calls upon him to secure his Title and Interest in this particular Psal 45. 3. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh O thou most mighty with thy Glory and thy Majesty And in thy Majesty ride prosperously and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the Kings enemies whereby the people fall under thee Thus you see the Militia serves to dress up the Crown And if it did not of right belong unto it why should St. Paul make the Prince the most immediate Sword-bearer of the Almighty Rom. 13. 4. He therefore that is invested with the Crown must have the Militia to adorn and guard it Lastly if you would have the Crown to flourish kindly you must dress it up by a prompt and cheerful obedience But for the most part the Commands of our Prince goes against the hair with us they beget doubts and scruples nay 't is well if they be not entertained with murmurings and disputings as if we had never learned our duty to our Superiours by the rule of the Apostle nor been taught by his spirit For his injunction is this servants be obedient to them that are your Masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness Ephes 6. 5 6 7 8. Colos 3. 22 23 24. of your heart as unto Christ not with eye service as men-pleasers but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God even in point of obedience to your Soveraign from the heart with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance for even in this your civil obedien ye serve the Lord Christ And upon this account how doth Saint Peter conjure us to a dutiful subjection and obedience Submit your selves even for the Lords sake to the King as Supreme and to them that are commissioned under him to rule over you 1 Pet. 2. 13. And perhaps as the Psalmist hath it the people will be willing in the Psal 110. 3. day of the Kings power If not the Crown is obliged to secure its own glory as well as Gods with the wellfare of Church and State And to this end it was a just sanction that Artaxerxes inserted into the Commission of Ezra in these words And whosoever will not do the Law of thy God and the Law of the King let judgment be executed speedily upon him whether it be unto death or to banishment or to confiscation of Goods or to imprisonment Ezra 7. 26. But I must tell you were there not a necessity of such proceedings to secure the publick peace and order it would be a tarnishing of the Crown to have it thus garnished I do rather therefore beseech you to honour it by a free obedience And yet I am afraid there are some that were it in their power would be ready to dress up the Crown with more thorns and crosses instead of yielding their dutiful assistance to make it flourish some that would yet clip and wash it and use other of the late artifices to extract more gold out of it to varnish and guild over their own crimes and fortunes And yet I am loath to entertain so uncharitable a thought of such men as are under a solemn Vow and Covenant whereby they have engaged themselves with hands lifted up to heaven to preserve the Honour and Dignity of the Crown and profess to approve themselves His Majesties best Subjects I am unwilling to