Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	call_v	father_n	great_a	2,038	5	3.0943	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76741	The felicity of Queen Elizabeth: and her times, with other things; by the Right Honorable Francis Ld Bacon Viscount St Alban.; In felicem memoriam Elizabethae. English	Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626.; Burghley, William Cecil, Baron, 1520-1598.	1651 (1651)	Wing B297; Thomason E1398_2; ESTC R17340	39,913	194

it the pitch of happiness which say they is then onely compleat when it is exempted from the wheel of fortune and out of danger to be blemished by a degenerating issue She wanted not also those outward adjuncts of happiness she was tall of stature of comely limbs and excellent feature in her countenance Majesty sate under the vail of sweetness her health was sound and prosperous and so drawing to her last without sense of age or misfortune she had that which Augustus so much desired a gentle and happy departure The which is likewise recorded of Antonius Pius that good Emperor whose death was like a dream or some sweet imagination In all her sickness was nothing ominous nor lamentable nor uncouth to her kind no Symptom was seen strange or noisome but all of such a frame as rather shewed the frailty of the corruption of humane nature for some few daies before her death finding her body seldom moistened with wine or a larger diet to shrink up with driness and cares which attend a crown she suffered some convulsion in her nerves still keeping though in a slow and weaker measure her speech motion and understanding which is not ordinary in that disease But this estate not long abiding seeming rather the first steps to death then last act of life for when the powers of life are wasted it is a wretched thing to remain in life but by the slumber of sense to haste insensibly to death is a clement and easie close of life Add this to the hap of her felicity that she was not onely happy in her own but also in the abilities of her servants for she had such gifted men about her as perhaps this Island had rarely brought forth before But God when he favoureth Kings enlargeth the hearts of their ministers Two felicities yet remain that may be called Post humus which are indeed higher and happier then all these that adorned her life One of her successor the other of her memory such a successor she had who albeit in regard of his masculine vertue and fair progeny and access of a new Kingdom might somwhat shadow or exceed her glory yet he alwayes honoured her name and gave a kinde of perpetuity to her deeds for he made so small alteration in the orders he found established or persons she had chosen that so the son could succeed his father with greater silence or less danger or disturbance of estate And concerning the fame and happiness of her memory that is yet so fresh in the mindes and mouths of men as taking life from her ashes wherein all envy is raked up it seemeth to contend with the happiness of her life for if any factious humor raised from dissent in Religion be yet buzzing abroad though it seems by this time conjured down by consent of truth as it is most foul and false so it cannot be long lived and truly I have gathered these notes of Gods favour and her felicity for this special end that malicious men should be afraid to mingle their cursings amongst so many blessings of God After all this if any should say as one did of Caesar We hear of things whereat we wonder but look for things which we might commend I verily think that true admiration is certain excess of praise and verily these felicities here described cannot befal to any who are not visibly sustained with divine favours and in some sort have not set their lives in aim of glory nevertheless I will recount some few things concerning her manners and of those onely which might seem to lend occasion unto base speeches of contumelious men In her religion she was pious constant moderate and could not away with innovations her piety chiefly appeared in her works and actions but it was also seen in the ordinary course and conversation of her life she was seldom absent from prayers in her closet or at sermons and solemn service abroad diligent in reading the Scriptures well versed in the Fathers and above all in St. Augustine upon divers occasions she composed sundry prayers when she mentioned God though in common talk added for the most part of Creator casting as I have often observed her face eies into a reverend form of humility and whereat some have published that she put off the thought of mortality nor could abide to hear of old age or death It is most untrue for many years before her end she was not nice often and with much grace to call her self old woman and used to discourse of her Tomb and what inscription would most please her saying She delighted not in long Titles or shadows of glory a line or two would be enough for her memory which in few words should only express her name in her virginity the time of her raign the restoring of religion establishment of Peace True it is that being once importuned to declare her successor whilst she was yet in her full strength not unfit to bear children she would not endure her winding sheet to be spread before her eies and yet not long before her death sitting pensive and as it were musing of mortality as one came and told her that divers places stood too long vacant in the State she rose up somwhat offended and said She knew well enough that her place would not stand an instant empty Her moderation may perchance be doubted in matter of Religion considering the severity of those Lawes she made against the Papists But herein we will produce such onely things whereof we have certain knowledge and made diligent search out of all question the meaning of this Princess minde was this neither to offer violence to the consciences of men nor to suffer her State to be disquieted under pretext of conscience out of which foundation she judged first of all that the toleration of two Religions in one hot heart-burning people who from differenc in mind might break out into blows might be of pernitious consequence to the State thereupon at her entrance upon the Crown when all things were ful of suspition she used the power of the Law and committed som of the busiest and most factious Prelates for the rest of their Coat so far was she from vexing them with severe inquisitions that she winked at their faults and took them into her protection This was the first state of things and although the interdiction of Pius the fift might have stirred up her anger and made her resolve of a sharper course yet she departed not from her nature and changed little from her mildness for like a most wise and heroical Lady secure of her peoples love and that the Popish Faction could not stir at home without far assistance she passed little for the claps of the Popes thunder But about the three and twentieth of her raign things received an alteration which change of time was not complotted by design but recorded in publick Acts and cut as it were in brass for perpetuity Till

age but usually it bringeth to Princes besides those common griefs ends void of glory and diminution of estate few attaining an old and unwealdy age without some loss of reputation and state Take one example in Philip the second King of Spain a most puissant Prince and coming in swaying a Kingdom who in his latter daies feeling the burthen and feebleness of age helped weakness with wisedom submitting himself to the course of mortal things thereupon he restored such places as had been won in there he established a Peace and attempted the same elsewhere that his affairs being all compounded he might leavethem intire and illetigious to his heirs The contrary in all things hapned to Q. Elizabeth to whom fortune was so firm that she never suffered in flourishing or declining yeers any declination And to seal up her rare Felicity she departed not this world till the Rebellions in Ireland were decided by stroke of an happy battail that there might be no blemish nor imperfection in her glory That is not also to be forgotten what kinde of People she governed had she raigned in Palmgrevis or over the milk sops of Asia it would have been no marvel that a female Prince should command effeminate Nations But that in England so Warlike and stout a People should stir and stop at the beck of a woman cannot be without great admiration yet for all this inclination of her people longing for war of their rest impatient she was never hindred from loving and keeping of peace which will of hers was seconded with success I reckon among her chiefest praises for it not onely became her sex and eased her age but was certainly a great comfort to her conscience indeed about the tenth of her raign some tumults were attempted in the North but they were quickly quenched and she enjoyed ever after deep peace and security which inward peace of her times I judge was most glorious for two respects the one that it shone the better by the flames and combustions of her neighbours the other that notwithstanding the easiness of Peace Armes wanted not their honour whereby the prowess of the English Name was not onely kept up but increased hence many supplies were sent into Scotland France and the Netherlands divers expeditions by Sea into the Indies some wherof gave the world a girdle Fleets were rigged to infest the Coasts of Spain and Portugal The Rebels in Ireland were often tamed and suppressed so that she took a special care that neither the courage of the people should rest nor their fame suffer any diminution To this glory the weight of desert was added for by her reasonable reliefs neighbouring Princes were preserved in the Kingdom and afflicted people exposed by their Lords badly counselled to the cruelty of their Ministers and devoted to the Shambles received petition in their miseries whereof they feel the benefit at this day In her councels she was no less kinde and helpful then in her supplies whereby she perswaded the King of Spain to asswage his anger towards his subjects of the Netherlands reduce them to obedience upon tollerable terms and often solicited the Kings of France to keep their faith by not infringing the edicts granted to publick peace in the first whereof she had regard to the state of Europe in general lest the boundless ambition of Spain once broken out should fuse it self over the Christian world and endanger the common liberty In the second she had compassion of so many innocents that suffered fire and sword with their wives and children among whom the scum of the people armed and animated with publick power were let loose like wild beasts to devour them whose blood called for vengeance and expiation upon that Kingdom which had made a league to commit inhumane murders and savage Laniations in both which she omitted not do the office of a kinde wise and considerate Prince There is yet another cause which maketh the piece of her raign more admirable namely that it proceeded from her own wisedom and contriving against the disposition of the times for if we consider her kingdom either cut into factions at home by difference of religion or abroad standing as the strength and bulwork of Christendom against the monstrous designs and overflowing power of Spain we shall finde that there was no fuel wanting for a war but she had provided for all and gotten the reach both in Force and Councel as that memorable event well declared which for the happiness thereof surpassed all the actions of our age for when that Navy called Invincible whose sailes swelled with pride and secure of victory had entered the narrow Seas to the fear and astonishment of Europe it neither took a cock-boat at Sea nor burnt a Cottage at Land nor once touched upon the Coasts but was miserably scattered and put to flight and at last dashed upon against the Rocks whist peace remained in her confines and no commotion was seen in the Land No less happy was she in escaping the plot of Traytors then defeating the power of her enemies for though divers conspiracies were hatched against her life yet all were either discovered or failed neither did they work any jealousies or distrust in her mind for she kept not the more within nor went the less abroad nor increased the number of her guard but secure and confident and mindful more of her deliverance from danger then of the danger it self she changed nothing from the wonted course of her life It is not also unworthy to be marked the quality of those times wherein she flourished for some ages fall out to be so barbarous and silly that it were no harder matter to rule a Nation of men then to lead a flock of sheep but she was eminent in learned and refined times wherein it was not easie to excel without singular parts of Nature habituation of Vertue and extraordinary indowments of Wit and Temper Besides the raign of Women use to be obscured with marriage whose worth and actions are commonly smothered up under the names and covert of their husbands Those onely that live unmarried have no partner in their glory such was she and this praise she deserved the more because she was supported by no props but her own no half brother nor uncle nor Prince of the blood was remaining to whom she might impart her cares and receive assistance in her governing yea those who she advanced to highest honours she kept in such a ballance and restraint that every one laboured most to please her will whilst she remained mistris of her self Barren indeed she was left no child behind her which also happened to many fortunate Princes Alexander the great Julius Caesar and Trojaen the Emperor but this may be a diverse construction and be disputed on either part some call it diminishment of happiness as if those men were blessed above the conditions of men who prove aswel happy in their propagation as in themselves Others make