Selected quad for the lemma: king_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
king_n	aaron_n	priest_n	regal_a	60	3	10.8179	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13216	Redde debitum. Or, A discourse in defence of three chiefe fatherhoods grounded upon a text dilated to the latitude of the fift Commandement; and is therfore grounded thereupon, because 'twas first intended for the pulpit, and should have beene concluded in one or two sermons, but is extended since to a larger tract; and written chiefely in confutation of all disobedient and factious kinde of people, who are enemies both to the Church and state. By John Svvan.	Swan, John, d. 1671.	1640 (1640)	STC 23514; ESTC S118031	127,775	278

shall shew thee the sentence of judgement Upon which ground David setting the Kingdome in better order then in processe of time it was growne into 1 Chro. 23.4 appointed sixe thousand Levites to bee Indges and Magistrates over the people and beyond Iordan towards the West 1 Chron. 26.30 a thousand and seven hundred both to serve God in the place of Levites and also to serve the King in offices of State ibid. verse 32. Hee also set two thousand and seven hundred to bee over the Tribes of Ruben Gad and Manasseth to heare and determine in causes both Ecclesiasticall and Civill The like also did Iehosophat in his reformation of the Church and Common-weale 2 Chron. 19.5.8.11 Ezra was a Priest Ezr. c. 7. 8. yet who but he that first of all after the Captivitie ordered all matters both for the Church Nehe. c. 1. and State Nehemiah came not up untill 13. yeares after for Nehemiah was in the twentieth and Ezra in the 7. yeare of Artaxerxes Zorobabel I grant was long before but he did little or nothing for the reducing of things into a forme of government or suppose he did Ezra we are sure did a great deale more Neither was it 1 Sam. c. 2.18 c. 7.15.16 but that even before all these Samuel as a Priest ministered before the Lord in a linnen Ephod and as a Iudge did ride his circuit every yeare over all the land yea and in the daies of Saul although he was the annointed King yet Samuel ruled joyntly with him so long as they lived each with other or at the least was such a Counseller to him as that after hee was dead and buried he seeks to heare what he would advise or answer standing then destitute of such direction as he had usually received from him Nay sooner yet for Phineas was sent Ambassadour to proclaim war against the Rubenites the Gadites the half tribe of Manasses Iosh 22.12.3 The Priests overthrew the Citie Iericho Iosh 6. Nor did they afterwards but sound their Trumpets and bid the battell in the warre of Ahiiah against Ieroboam 2 Chron. 13.12.14 The land also is divided among the Tribes by Eleazar and Ioshua Numb 34.17 A thousand likewise of every Tribe is sent out to war against the Midianites under the conduct of Phineas Numb 31.6 And in the same warre the spoyles were divided among the Souldiers by Moses and Eleazar the Priest and the cheife Fathers of the Congregation verse 26. The people also were numbred by Moses and Eleazar in the plaine of Moab as they had been numbred formerly by Moses and Aaron in the wildernesse of Sinai Numb 26.63.64 From which testimonies it is plaine and manifest that some such Priests as the King thinks fit may when he pleaseth be lawfully employed in civill affaires or offices and may even thus be honoured as were those Priests of old And whereas some object that arguments drawne from the old Testament An objection answered prove nothing now under the New it is answered First that they may as well deny the arguments taken from thence against the Popes authority and domineering power over Christian Kings and Princes as denie these arguments for proofe of that civill honour which is thus given to the Ministers of the Gospell And therefore it is not love but envie which would seeme to bolster out things with such new Divinitie Secondly the Ministers of the Gospell as one hath well observed may with more convenience be employed in civill offices then those Priests under the Law whose time is not now taken up as then it was with attendance on the daily sacrifices great number of feasts solemnities and such like occasions by which their leisure was lesse to heare civill matters then now to the Minister under the Gospell Thirdly the Ministers of the Gospell have succeeded in a place of the Levites and looke what in that kinde was lawfull for them to doe is not unlawfull now especially seeing these employments pertained not to things typicall figurative or ceremoniall And fourthly although Christ and his Apostles were never thus employed yet is that nothing against our tenet For who made me a judge over you sayth Christ Intimating Luke 12.14 that unlesse the supreame Magistrate shall assigne Clergie-men to such offices they may not meddle with them But had the Church and Common-wealth been both one then it had beene as lawfull as in the daies of old which appointment or assignation was never like to bee so long as the Church was in the Kingdome of heathen tyrants Certain it is that when the Emperours became Christians some men of the Church were thus employed And although the condition of the Ministers of Christ differed not in this from that of the Levites yet it could not shew it selfe till then Examples are not wanting Theod. lib. 2. c. 30. Theodorit makes mention of one Iames Bishop of * Called also Nysibit Antioch in Mygdonia who shined with Apostolicall grace and yet was both Bishop and governour of the aforesaid Citie Or if this testimonie be obscure see another Saint Ambrose was twice employed in the office of an Ambassadour by the Emperour Valentinian and not without good successe Socrates also makes mention of one Marutha Socrat. lib. 7. c. ● Bishop of Mesopotamia whom the Emperour of Rome sent in an Ambassage to the King of Persia which employment likewise proved good both to the Church and Common-weale Neither can this bee called an inuasion of the offices of the civill Magistrate or be contrary to the rule of any auncient Canon when it is done by the consent and appointment of the chiefe Magistrate as in the lawes of Iustinian alledged by Saravia is apparent Lib. de honore Prasulibus et Presbyt debito cap. 20. And although the the Popes lawes have decreed the contrary yet it is not fit sayth one that we which are a reformed Church and have long since abandoned the Popes authority Dr Dove of Church govern pag. 40. should now forsake God and the examples of the holy Bible to follow the Pope and his Canons Fiftly and lastly Saint Paul thought it lawfull to spend his spare time in the worke of his hands But if the necessitie of Domesticke affaires may excuse a Pastour of the Church for so doing then much more may they be excused for doing such offices when the King thinkes it fit that they bee called thereunto as shall benefit the common wealth wherein they live Neither doth this appertaine to the entangling of our selves with the things of this World For that text where this is mentioned striketh at those whose covetous hands and greedie hearts are so glewed to the earth for the gathering to themselves a private estate that they forget every such thing as may tend to the good either of the Church or State wherein they live which every good Christian and therefore every upright man of God

such And herein there is one thing more which I grieve to utter that hospitalitie charity and means of doing good should in a manner be quite dead and gone And why is that but by reason that all is too little to maintaine this their apish pride these their foolish fashions with other as vaine and idle spendings for by how much we are the more in wast unto our selves by so much we are the lesse to God the King the poore and honest neighbourly societie Whereas on the contrary if every one would be orderly contained within their owne bounds and unthrifts wast lesse by unwarrantable courses I dare be bold to say that many sorts of men might have where with all the better to shew their zeale to the Church and state wherein they live might be hospitable charitable yea and might entertaine many friends and acquaintance with that which to the entertaining of a Prince or Prince his Ambassadour is scarce so much as the Widdowes two mites cast into the treasury Beside all which with much more that are the charges of a watchfull Prince there be times also of more then ordinary necessity and then a King may not spare out of his royall prerogative to raise an Army or presse of men from among his subjects and have a stricter hand over mens persons children and goods then at other times The testimony of which truth is in the first booke of Samuel the 8. chapter at the 11. ● Sam. 8.11 verse and so on to the end of the 17. verse where the words be these This shall be the manner or right of the King that shal reigne over you Hee shall take your sonnes and appoint them for himselfe for his charets and to be his horsemen and some to runne before his charet Hee shall appoint some to be captaines over thousands and captaines over fifties and some to make him weapons for the warre He shall take your daughters your fields the tenth of your seed your Men-servants and Maid-servants together with the best of your yong-men and Asses And at the 17. verse The tenth of your sheepe and ye also shall be his servants But to this perhaps it may be objected Object that the drift or intent of the foresaid speech was to deterre the people from having a King and not to shew the rights or the Royalties of a King Whereto I answer that the main drift was indeed to deterre them Answ But as there cannot be an effect without a cause so that the thing intended might be effected he sheweth how farre the power and right of a King once set over them might extend it selfe I say might For it no where appeareth that Saul put in practise all these things here mentioned And therefore should it in the second place be objected that Samuel deterres them not by shewing the lawfull power of a King but by declaring the customes of a Tyrant it must be granted that Saul was to be such a one as is there described or else in my judgement they are wide from the matter Saul I grant was tyrannous enough in his cruelties against David and bloodie practises against the Priests formerly mentioned But if in case of necessity he had beene forced to doe what this scripture declareth I doubt not but he might have done it without the imputation of injustice or of any tyrannous usurpation For be it granted that if the extreamity of this were ordinarily urged by a King or put in practise upon every triviall slight occasion or without just cause it were not better then tyrannie as wee are taught in Deut. 17.20 yet on the contrarie for a King to exercise such or the like authoritie over his Subjects when any imminent danger or knowne necessity shall compell him to it is no tyrannie but the toppe and high branch of his regall power and royall prerogative For if not in such cases then in what is it that A King may doe whatsoever he pleaseth where his word is there is power Ecelos 8.3.4 and who may say unto him what dost thou And be it granted that this be not done out of tyrannie but necessity it serues not onely for safetie but for tryall also of a subjects inclination or affection towards his Prince Yea and thus also may be said even when we speake more generally not onely of this but of all the foresaid occasions comparing one time and businesse with another Neither do I finde that there is or can be any time wherein the head ought not to bee strengthened For by suffering the head to bee weake how can the body prosper Or if the Kings treasury be not like a spring how can the waters of safetie be conveyed into the Cisternes of his subjects And therefore to bee as some are so much be witched to what wee have that we had rather loose all then part with some argues as well folly as malignity For as the Moone and starres would fall infinitely short of that bright lustre which now they have if the Sunne were stripped of his abundant shining So take from a King his Royall prerogative with the Consistorians and their peevish adherents stint him to the modicums of the churlish Nabalists and let him be as if hee were a King and no King and then his very people will in a short space find that as from his flourishing comes their happinesse So from his want comes their miserie But here perhaps will some man object Object out of Deut. 17.17 That a King may not gather unto himselfe much silver and gold and therefore it is in vaine to urge that he should have a full treasury To which I answer Answ that this text toucheth none but those who are tyrannous cruell griping oppressing Princes who ayme at nothing more then at their owne private profit no whit regarding the safety and welfare of their subjects whom God hath committed to their care trust But as for others whose care and employments are such as I have alredy mētioned it meddles not with them for they may not onely have tribute paid them Subjectionis testificandae gratia in token of subjection but also that they may be inabled to undergoe with cheerefulnesse the costs and charges appertaining to the manifold and unknowne affaires of the common-weale together with the education of their off-spring which in hereditarie Kingdomes cannot but be acknowledged among loyall subjects as the welcome Stemmes and hopefull branches for the future times For these are indeed those royall spirits of life which can put full measures of wished joy into a peoples heart for where the case stands thus though the Sunne may set no night appeares but the day is still kept in brightnesse by the happie arising of another Sunne In a word therfore to looke yet once againe unto our selues our land hath beene and still is a treasury and a storehouse for Gods blessings but God grant that among our other sinnes our disobedience ryot pride and