Selected quad for the lemma: king_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
king_n	earl_n	great_a	lord_n	27,730	5	3.6766	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64132	A sermon preached in Christs-Church, Dublin, July 16, 1663, at the funeral of the most Reverend Father in God John, late Lord Archbishop of Armagh and primate of all Ireland with a succint narrative of his whole life / by the Right Reverend Father in God Jeremy, Lord Bishop of Down and Connor.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.	1663 (1663)	Wing T396; ESTC R11878	29,244	70

he was there their forward hopes to enjoy him as their Bishop their trouble at his Departure their unwillingness to let him go away gave signal testimonies that they were wise and kind enough to understand and value his great worth But while he lived there he was like a Diamond in the dust or Lucius Quinctius at the plough his low Fortune covered a most valuable person till he became observ'd by Sir Thomas Wentworth Lord President of York whom we all knew for his great Excellencies and his great but glorious Misfortunes This rare person espied the great abilities of Doctor Bramhall and made him his Chaplain and brought him into Ireland as one whom he believ'd would prove the most fit instrument to serve in that design which for two years before his arrival here he had greatly meditated and resolved the Reformation of Religion and the Reparation of the broken Fortunes of the Church The Complaints were many the Abuses great the Causes of the Church vastly numerous but as fast as they were brought in so fast they were by the Lord Deputy referred back to Dr. Bramhall who by his indefatigable Pains great Sagacity perpetual Watchfulness daily and hourly Consultations reduc'd things to a more tolerable condition then they had been left in by the Schismatical principles of some and the unjust Prepossessions of others form any years before For at the Reformation the Popish Bishops and Priests seemed to conform and did so that keeping their Bishopricks they might enrich their Kindred and dilapidate the Revenues of the Church which by pretended Offices false Informations Fee-farms at contemptible Rents and ungodly Alienations were made low as Poverty it self and unfit to minister to the needs of them that serv'd the Altar or the noblest purposes of Religion For Hospitality decayed and the Bishops were easie to be oppressed by those that would and they complained but for a long time had no helper till God raised up that glorious Instrument the Earl of Strafford who brought over with him as great affections to the Church and to all publick Interests and as admirable Abilities as ever before his time did invest and adorn any of the Kings Vicegerents and God fitted his hand with an Instrument good as his skill was great For the first Specimen of his Abilities and Diligence in recovery of some lost Tithes being represented to His late Majesty of blessed and glorious memory it pleased His Majesty upon the death of Bishop Downham to advance the Doctor to the Bishoprick of D●r●y which he not onely adorned with an excellent spirit and a wise Government but did more then double the Revenue not by taking any thing from them to whom it was due but by resuming something of the Churches Patrimony which by undue means was detained in unfitting hands But his care was beyond his Diocese and his zele broke out to warm all his Brethren and though by reason of the Favour and Piety of King Iames the escheated Counties were well provided for their Tithes yet the Bishopricks were not so well till the Primate then Bishop of Derry by the favour of the Lord Lieutenant and his own incessant and assiduous labour and wise conduct brought in divers Impropriations cancell'd many unjust Alienations and did restore them to a condition much more tolerable I say much more tolerable for though he rais'd them above contempt yet they were not near to envy but he knew there could not in all times be wanting too many that envied to the Church every degree of prosperity so Iudas did to Christ the expence of Oyntment and so Dyonisius told the Priest when himself stole the golden Cloak from Apollo and gave him one of Arcadian home-spun that it was warmer for him in Winter and cooler in Summer And forever since the Church by God's blessing and the favour of Religious Kings and Princes and Pious Nobility hath been endowed with fair Revenues inimicus homo the Enemy hath not been wanting by pretences of Religion to take away God's portion from the Church as if his Word were intended as an instrument to rob his Houses But when the Israelites were governed by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and God was their King and Moses his Lieutenant and things were of his management he was pleas'd by making great Provisions for them that ministred in the service of the Tabernacle to consign this truth for ever That Men as they love God at the same rate are to make provisions for his Priests For when himself did it he not only gave the 48. Cities with a mile of Glebe round about their City every way and yet the whole Country was but 140. miles long or thereabouts from Dan to Beersheba but besides this they had the tithe of all increase the first fruits offerings vows redemptions and in short they had 24. sorts of Dues as Buxtorf relates and all this either brought to the Barn home to them without trouble or else as the nature of the thing required brought to the Temple the first to make it more profitable and the second to declare that they received it not from the People but from God not the Peoples kindness but the Lords inheritance insomuch that this small Tribe of Levi which was not the 40th part of the People as the Scripture computes them had a Revenue almost treble to any of the largest of the Tribes I will not insist on what Villalpandus observes it may easily be read in the 45. of Ezekiel concerning that portion which God reserves for himself and his service but whatsoever it be this I shall say that it is confessedly a Prophecy of the Gospel but this I adde that they had as little to do and much less than a Christian Priest and yet in all the 24. courses the poorest Priest amongst them might be esteemed a Rich man I speak not this to upbraid any man or any thing but Sacrilege and Murmur nor to any other end but to represent upon what great and Religious grounds the then Bishop of Derry did with so much care and assiduous labour endeavour to restore the Church of Ireland to that splendor and fulness which as it is much conducing to the honour of God and of Religion God himself being the Judge so it is much more necessary for you than it is for us and so this wise Prelate rarely well understood it and having the same advantage and blessing as we now have a Gracious King and a Lieutenant Patron of Religion and the Church he improv'd the deposita pietatis as Origen calls them the Gages of Piety which the Religion of the ancient Princes and Nobles of this Kingdom had bountifully given to such a comfortable competency that though there be place left for present and future Piety to inlarge it self yet no man hath reason to be discourag'd in his duty insomuch that as I have heard from a most worthy hand that at his going into England he

had done like AEsops Viper they licked the file till their tongues bled but himself was wholly invulnerable They were therefore forc'd to leave their muster-rolls and decline the particulars and fall to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to accuse him for going about to subvert the fundamental Laws the way by which great Strafford and Canterbury fell which was a device when all reasons fail'd to oppress the Enemy by the bold affirmation of a Conclusion they could not prove they did like those Gladiatores whom the Romans call'd Retiaries when they could not stab their Enemies with their daggers they threw nets over him and cover'd him with a general mischief But the Martyr King Charles the First of most glorious and Eternal Memory seeing so great a Champion likely to be oppress'd with numbers and despair sent what rescue he could his Royal Letter for his Bail which was hardly granted to him and when it was it was upon such hard terms that his very delivery was a persecution So necessary it was for them who intended to do mischief to the publick to take away the strongest pillars of the house This thing I remark to acquit this great man from the tongue of slander which had so boldly spoken that it was certain something would stick yet was so impotent and unarm'd that it could not kill that great same which his greater worthiness had procur'd him It was said of Hippasus the Pythagorean that being ask'd how and what he had done He answer'd Nondum nihil neque enim adhuc mihi invidetur I have done nothing yet for no man envies me He that does great things cannot avoid the tongues and teeth of Envy but if calumnies must pass for evidences the bravest Hero's must alwayes be the most reproched Persons in the World Nascitur AEtolicus pravum ingeniosus ad omne Qui facere assuerat patriae non degener artis Candida de nigris de candentibus atra Every thing can have an ill name and an ill sense put upon it but God who takes care of reputations as he does of lives by the orders of his providence confutes the slander ut memoria justorum sit in benedictionibus that the memory of the righteous man might be embalm'd with honour And so it hapned to this great man for by a publick Warranty by the concurrent consent of both Houses of Parliament the Libellous Petitions against him the false Records and publick Monuments of injurious shame were cancell'd and he was restor'd in integrum to that fame where his great labours and just procedures had first estated him which though it was but justice yet it was also such honour that it is greater then the virulence of tongues which his worthiness and their envy had arm'd against him But yet the great scene of the troubles was but newly open'd I shall not refuse to speak yet more of his troubles as remembring that St. Paul when he discourses of the glories of the Saints departed he tells more of their sufferings than of their prosperities as being that Laboratory and Crysable in which God makes his Servants vessels of honour to his glory The storm quickly grew high transitum est à linguis ad gladios and that was indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iniquity had put on arms when it is armata nequitia then a man is hard put to it The Rebellion breaking out the Bishop went to his charge at Derry and because he was within the defence of Walls the execrable Traitor Sir Phelim ● Neale laid a snare to bring him to a dishonourable death For he wrote a Letter to the Bishop pretended Intelligence between them desir'd that according to their former agreement such a Gate might be deliver'd to him The messenger was not advis'd to be cautious not at all instructed in the art of Secrecy for it was intended that he should be search'd intercepted and hang'd for ought they car'd but the Arrow was shot against the Bishop that he might be accused for base Conspiracy and die with shame and sad dishonour But here God manifested his mighty care of his Servants he was pleas'd to send into the heart of the messenger such an affrightment that he directly ran away with the Letter and never durst come near the Town to deliver it This story was publish'd by Sir Phelim himself who added That if he could have thus ensnar'd the Bishop he had good assurance the Town should have been his own Sed bonitas Dei praevalitura est super omnem malitiam hominis The goodness of God is greater then all the malice of Men and nothing could so prove how dear that sacred Life was to God as his rescue from the dangers Stantia non poterant tecta probare Deos To have kept him in a warm house had been nothing unless the roof had fallen upon his head that rescue was a remark of Divine favour and Providence But it seems Sir Phelim's Treason against the Life of this worthy Man had a Correspondent in the Town and it broke out speedily for what they could not effect by malicious stratagem they did in part by open force they turn'd the Bishop out of the Town and upon trifling and unjust pretences search'd his Carriages and took what they pleas'd till they were asham'd to take more they did worse then divorce him from his Church for in all the Roman Divorces they said Tuas tibi res babeto Take your goods and be gone but Plunder was Religion then However though the usage was sad yet it was recompenc'd to him by his taking Sanctuary in Oxford where he was graciously receiv'd by that most incomparable and divine Prince but having served the King in Yorkshire by his Pen and by his Counsels and by his Interests return'd back to Ireland where under the excellent conduct of his Grace the now Lord Lieutenant he ran the risque and fortune of oppressed Vertue But God having still resolv'd to afflict us the good-man was forc'd into the fortune of the Patriarchs to leave his Countrey and his Charges and seek for safety and bread in a strange Land for so the Prophets were us'd to do wandring up and down in sheeps-clothing but poor as they were the world was not worthy of them and this worthy man despising the shame took up his Cross and followed his Master Exilium causa ipsa jubet sibi dulce videri Et desiderium dulce levat patriae He was not asham'd to suffer where the Cause was honourable and glorious but so God provided for the needs of his banished and sent a man who could minister comfort to the afflicted and courage to the persecuted and resolutions to the tempted and strength to that Religion for which they all suffered And here this great man was indeed triumphant this was one of the last and best scenes of his life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The last dayes are the best witnesses of a man But so it was that