Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	ancient_a	king_n	time_n	3,012	5	3.4617	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85710	A sermon preached in the Citie of London by a lover of truth. Touching the power of a king, and proving out of the word of God, that the authoritie of a king is onely from God and not of man.	Griffith, Matthew, 1599?-1665.	1643 (1643)	Wing G2017; Thomason E104_17; ESTC R22414	21,757	29

as if hee could not bu blaspheme God that spake ill of his King though of Ahab Nequissimus regum They are much mistaken who think that God was offended with the Jewes for chosing royall government in opposition to the jud●ciall or the Shawhedrim established by God under Moses for Royall government hath beene most ancient and universall in the world in the Law of nature before the Ta●les Saint Chrisostome saith therefore Eve was taken out of man not out of the earth that mankinde might acknowledge one head one Superiour one King and Sir Wal. Raleigh in his second book of the Hist of the world Royall Government from Paternall which indeed are or ought to bee both in one effect and so we reade of Abraham the Patrarch is termed a Prince Genesis 23.6 And David the KING is named a Patriarch let mee speake boldly to you of David the Patriarch jus regum comes from jus paternum both have one commandement Honour thy Father as God alone rules the whole world and as the Sunne gives light to all creatures so the people of one Land doe most naturally yeeld obedience to one head one King All Nations were first governed by this forme Assyrians Gresians Aegyptians Iewes Percians Scythians Turkes Tartares English French Spaniards Poles Danes and in the Iudges Neither doth sacred Scripture make mention of other Rulers then Kings He that will know more in so cleere a case may if he please read Plato Herodotus Zen●phon Saint Cyprian Saint Ierome Soveraignty in one person is most naturall most reasonable most honourable most necessary most divine So that God was not angry at the choyce of the kinde of government but that he thereby was cast forth from being King of the Iewes whom hee in the place of a King had governed for above three hundred and fiftie yeares for neither Moses nor the Sawhedrim nor any Judge in Israel had in themselves jus imperatorium the Right of a King but onely jus hortatorium punitivum if they transgressed the written Law of God God only was their King who faine would still besides the generall protection of the world have ruled as an earthly King among the rest and a patterne to them but they would no longer live by faith and expectation of his wonted direction in government and deliverance but rather to be as the Nations round about them they chose a man and refused the living GOD Hee is ejected from his immediate Royalty This the ground of Gods displeasure at the Iewes for choosing them a KING Ancient and universall hath beene the government of the world by Kings Saint Ierom● in one of his Epistles saith that two Governours in a Common-wealth are like Esau and Iacob two Princes in the wombe of Rebecca so they in one Kingdome rend and teare in peeces Rome would not endure two brothers In navi unus guberrator in Ecclesia unus Episcopus in Domo unus Dominus in exercitu unum signum in imperio unus imperator The onely way to recover and preserve unity and peace among us is one King This for the Originall and antiquitie of Kings whence they are and when Now secondly what they are which is best knowne by that whereby they are formaliter or finaliter tales their power Where the Word of a King is there is power c. Salomon the wisest of men as well as Kings Proverbs 8.15 placeth Kings before the Creation of the world better not to bee at all then under no Governement which is none without power and that power if to any purpose must bee such as with which no earthly power may contest the owner of it is evermore Alkum one against whom there ought to bee no rising nor any rebellion at all Darius his three servants in Esdras wrote their wise sentences 1. Forte est vinum 2. Fortis est Rex 3. Fortiores surt mulieres sed supra omnia est veritas I am somewhat afeard it was a Prophesie they are indeed at this day stronger then our Darius Their fond Pharasaicall and seditious religions are as ridiculous and as changeable as their fashions and attires their ungrounded zeales their nourishing and feeding of the vulgar and rebellious of the Clergie those illiterate talkers in the Pulpit will nisi supra omnia sit veritas if the God of truth doe not speedily offend be stronger then either King or Church David although a man of valour and pietie yet complaines he that the sonnes of Zervia were to hard for him But our Kings and Church may both complaine of the daughters of this Land That they are and will be to hard for us nisi supra omnia veritas unlesse God support the integrity of our King and the sincerity of the Protestant Religion A more pregnant place for the power of Kings is in Wisdome 26 2. speaking of the extreme vengeance which God will bring upon the heads of evill Kings at the last day he proves the certainty thereof by an argument which will seeme very strange in these rebellious dayes Quoniam Dominus non vevebitur faciem cujusque unto you O Kings doe I speake hee is not afraid of the persons of Kings hee dares call them to account A very vaine idle argument to prove his unmastered deity and power in that he is not afraid of Kings Who is afraid of them Doth God indeed say Ego dixi Dij estis Wee can take up the next verse and be even with him he shall fall when we please like one of the Princes No such great matter of feare is the person or power of a King now a dayes when every poore ignorant pesant or shop-man can define confine and pinch up the prerogative of the King when the vulgar Clergie those Gibeanites not fit to draw water for learned men can pricke and gird the person of the King for the space of three or foure houres When every petty but insolent Towne can neglect if not contemne his presence when be vouchsafes to come and see us So that if God will prove his securitie to us hee must quit the old argument of feare due unto Kings from all but himselfe and fetch one sutable to our late religions and governments in Church and Common-Wealth As that he is not afraid of the Popes holinesse or of a presbysteriall discipline or a popular discipline Thus Scripture and reason the arguments of the wise must bee turned to and fro to follow the unconstant humour of this present world But we in feare of God and honour of his King will lay the ground of our allegiance fast and such as whereupon wee may build up a peece of obedience that may procure us a Crowne of immortality at the last day by Saint Gregories rule arcessemus Rivum fidelitatis de fonte pietatis not only from customes and fundamentall lawes in a private land who are most-what both imperfect and obscure but from the plaine and easie Text of Gods owne Law which as it

the KING what doest thou Were it not thinke you a very ungratefull sight to behold a Bull or an Vnicorne pushing at the Lion or the Falcon to seize upon the Eagle So and much more unseemely were it for the Princes of the Land to question their naturall King or to reprehend his government otherwise then by advise and humble intreatie And here I have no minde at this time to undervalue the persons and honours of the Princes of the Land though but in a comparative way in that the people will conceive all spoken absolutely which may be delivered by way of comparison and with the King only pro quo caeteri c. And so have their lives in no honour And their deaths in contempt and derision a fault too generall in this kingdome at this day John a Prince ●n Israel slew his Master he had peace because he had a Commission saith Iustin Martyr But had Zimri peace that slew his Master David a Prince under Saul tooke up foure hunddred men but with no intent to oppose the person of Saul but to preserve himselfe And Hugo Grotius grants that to have beene lawfull under the government and law of the Iewes which is not under the law of Christians we being bound to more perfect patience and obedience in regard of better promises concerning another kingdome so that David case is no president for us moreover there is no necessitie to thinke that David intended so much as a defensive war against Saul but rather as the Iewes under Antiochus to depart into the wildernesse and defend himselfe against the wild beasts or to take some townes of the Philistims untill the day of the death of Saul Thus dum timuit oleum servavit inimicum All that David did when he could have cut his throate was that he cut off the skirt of his garment and even of this he repented percussit eum cor ejus And it is this day a tradition amongst the Iewes saith Lyranus that David was punished in his death respectively to this sinne that no clothes could keepe him warme quia oram vestis Sauli abscidit in vestibus quibus opertus erat non calefiebat There is ground for this in the booke of Kings But whether true or no ficta arguunt the morall is good Princeps non est austeroris verbiense faedandus nec vel ultimae super fluae actionis corum quasi finbriam vituperando decorpere presum●mus Absalom a Prince Davids sonne rebells with the rairest pretence that both Religion and Justice could make for him forsooth that neither were duely executed in the land he would doe it yea and that speedily in the gates of the Citie but marke his end suspensus erat quasi in patibulo he was gibbeted without a Hangman transfixus tribus sagittis 1. For disobedience to his naturall Father 2. For opposing his naturall Soveraigne 3. For spoyling both Church and state under shew of Religion and Justice even when he lay with his Fathers Concubines upon the house toppe And let all the enemies of the Lord the King bee as the young man is 3. Quis e Magistratibus regni May say unto the King what doest thou A vinculis delictorum liberi sunt reges saith Saint Ambrose and Saint Austin to moderate the zeale of any inferour Magistrate affirmes if they command any thing it is not to command but a presumption and obedience to them proficiet ad paenam non ad premium quam ad contumeliam pertinet creatoris ut contempto Domino colamur serai spreto imperatore adorentur comites No counsell or Sanedrim could lawfully question Moses who was no King but Legatus Dei. Howsoever Philo in honour of him stiles him King There is no question but the generall counsell of a kingdome is the most incomparable medium of preferring both King and people that the reason of man can possibly invent But then the power of it must be onely directive not coercive For I would aske by what law by the Kings No man is bound to give a prejudiciall judgement against himselfe and if any equall have no power over an equall much lesse an inferior over a superior Lawes made by the King are not Buchanans to tye him down under the judgement and censure of his people but they are Organs or instruments of the power that governeth at once thereby to reach the whole people not coactively to binde the legislator for the K. In whom humane power doth reside is a person that cannot by his owne power be controlled much leste by the power of any subject moreover every active abilitie whether in nature or in morals is per se cause or principall of alteration corruptively in another body not in the body in the which it selfe resides Wherefore if Divines or Lawyers affirme obligation in Princes to their laws they teach herein only the bond of conscience They are not Idonei judices they appeale straight to God Tibi soli peccavi But to put an end to all questioning of Kings by any under Magistrate whatsoever I require an answer to the Law of God in these following questions Who questioned Saul for slaying the Priests did the Sanedrim who questioned Salomon for his revolt to Idolatry did the Sanedrim who questioned Ioram a Paracide and 6. times a murtherer of his Nobles did the Sanedrim who Ioas for his Idolatry and slaying the High Priest did the Sanedrim who questioned Theodosius for murthering 6000. innocent soules who questioned Constance Valens Julian the Apostate who traduced their persons and dignities who offered them tumultuous affronts unlesse wee will skill more in Religion then the former part of the Jewish and Christian world Desinamus ogganire plura reges percontari Remember that of Cicero Regum haec sunt imperia animadverte edicto pare preter rogitatum si loquare moriere And that of the Persian King mementote parendum vobis esse magis quam suadendum even the fundamentall lawes of this kingdome are by chance or good providence plaine for the unquestioned power of the King by any lower Magistrate Thomas of Walsingham speakes from a Parliament held at Lincolne An. 130. That the King of England from their preeminence and custome at all times have not to answer before any Judge either Ecclesiasticall or civill And Henry or Brachton cites a fundamentall of this land that if any thing bee to bee obtained of the King Cum breve non currat contra Regem there is nothing left to them but intreatie and prayers that hee would correct himselfe which if hee please not to doe it is enough that he expect the Lord from heaven as his only revengers De Chartis Regis facta Regum nec justiciaris nec privatae personae debent disputare For certainely if there be in a Common-wealth a reluctancie between two governments each watching its advantage and prioritie it cannot be but as Esau and Iacob strugled in the wombe so these in

of the subjects for rights they have have passed from them to former Kings in consideration of such priviledges it is both honourable and just that they be recompenced or restored back again Seventhly what if he violate the conditions propounded to him and his predecessors upon his entrance to the Crown may not the people question him for that Not so far I believe as is commonly thought summum imperium conditionatum may very well bee conseniasanea and not opposites In the Persian kingdome hee is sworne to the laws of the Persians which ought not to alter and yet none may question him if he violate these lawes In the Jewish government wherein Kings were absolute and uncontroleable by their subjects there were some cases conditions in which jure he had no power to Iudge as de Tribu de pontifice de propheta as is plain Ier. 38.5 yet although these conditions were delivered by God Himselfe if the K. as appeares in many places of the book of Kings and Chron. did intermeddle it was not in the power of the Iewes to question or derrive him of his government But what if it be a condition that if he breake these laws he shall ipso facto void his kingdom as it hath bin in some States This will be found a most prejudiciall condition both to King and people for wee living in this world not by mathematicall demonstrations where there is no medium between rectum ●●rium but by morall rules where there are many formae interjectae between rectum curvum vice and vertue Some vertuous actions comming neere vice are deemed vitious and some vicious comming mere vertue are reckoned vertuous it will bee very hard to know what when a King punctually keeps al his conditions but at the pleasure of a prevailing faction in the people he will be judged either directly or by consequence to have broken the conditions on which his kingdome depends this kinde of government must be very doubtfull and destructive to a Common-wealth Lastly may not the people come unto the King with quid agis if he intend and threaten to destroy the whole State as Nero and Caligula or if he intend to give up himselfe and his kingdome without the subjects consent not only in Patrocinium but in ditionem to another Prince In both these cases ex hypothesi that there hath been no rebellion in the subject and then the cases are morally impossible Grotius Barclay and Abbas Winzelus are of opinion that the Law of nature doth return unto the people again both for to defend themselves and elect againe But the holy Abbat is of a better opinion that the Law of Nature is not alwayes to be resumd by Christians especially here where it cannot be taken but with many inconveniences and uncertainties both from our not knowing what is a full intention and for defect of a lawfull Judge and in regard of appeales to other Nations and beside these a breach of many Lawes of Christianitie His advice is rather than to injure our Christian profession to betake our selves to fasting and prayers and removing from us our particular lusts and wickednesse provided thus for death expect Gods providence who never failes religious men and kingdomes in this generall preparation for death either God may turne him and his armies from us put a hooke in his nostrills or else confound his person with some sudden judgement even Lice may consume his unnaturall bowells or if not non ●●cet sed purgat Saint Ambrose hee doth but hasten us to a better kingdome an everlasting one in heaven Durus est Sermo sed tulit Iudeus f●rat Christianus Now in the name of Religion in the name of the peace of the Common-wealth and the honour of the King let me aske you these questions You that come up so boldly to the face of a King for the Relion who should clamare a facie ejus are yee sure the Religion yee question him for is the right Religion are yee sure your inspirations are not from the Devill are yee sure your Ministers are both for learning and manners such as in whom yee may conside in a matter that so concernes your soules And that they doe not humour you contrary to their owne consciences out of respect to preferment in the Church which at another time either their povertie in parts or poverty in manners could not attaine Are ye sure that those that from your Pulpits declaime so fervently against superstition and Idolatry have not themselves beene leaders in that which they now condemne in others and so cannot bee fitt Iudges what is Idolatry Or else themselves are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Againe are yee all of one Religion that the King may satisfie you all at once If yee be not all of one Religion tell us how many your are of if you can And if you should chance to be one Religion at any time hereafter are yee sure to continue in it That the King may not bee troubled Burgundians like to establish a new Religion once every yeare for you If you be not certaine of all these as I am sure you are not how dare yee certainely confound King Church and State for an uncertaine Religion Again for your Policy and civill government are ye certaine of the fundamentall lawes of the land Are ye sure ye cannot digest an Arbitrary government under the notion and terme of fundementall lawes It is not an impossible thing in nature that are ye sure if the King be not absolute and sole judge of fundamentall lawes to be freed from avarice and ambition in the interiour Iudges and Magistrates two inseprable vices in Aristocracy Both which are satisfied in a King ambition in that he is summu Avarice in large estate Are yee sure of the same Senate alwayes and if you be extreme now time may come when others may be as extreme now time may come when others may be as extreame and so the kingdome hurried betweene two extreames the peoples rule being to run from one extream unto another Lastly are ye sure if ye put any more insolent questions to the king you may not turne a meek and pious King as ever sate upon this Throne into a Tyrant A learned Church as ever any in this Kingdome or else where into ignorance Aflourishing stat as any in the Christian world into a confusion a long and happy peace into as long and unhappy warre a fulnesse into famine your wives to widdowes your children to Orphants your selves into your grave and you leave this nation behind you a Desolation a hissing a reproach a by word to the nations round about us And now God forgive mee if in this discourse I have not intended rather the liberties and rights of the subject then the prerogative of the King I remembred all this while what Saint August saith Tolle Iura Regum et quis potest dicere haec volla mearst take away the Kings sole and absolute government and who can secure his own life and estat they must needs be subject to a thousand alterations I besech you therefore by your deare and many Children by the antient Protestant Religion by the antient and fundamentall lawes in this land for obedience King sit down with prayers and tears for these many distractions Saint Bernards way non scuta sed fletu reparate rempub Amend your lives be charitable and kind on to another fit downe togither in peace under your vines as people who hope hereafter to fit downe in the kingdom of heaven In a word feare God honour the King neither people nor Church nor Nobility nor inferiour Magistrate of the land lay unto the King by the way of rebellious contradiction What doest thou FINIS