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	honour_n	king_n	2,041	5	3.5204	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01368	The vviddoves mite cast into the treasure-house of the prerogatiues, and prayses of our B. Lady, the immaculate, and most glorious Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. With reasons why we are to haue great confidence in her prayers. Whereunto is annexed, A prayer, for the loue of God, made in contemplation of the passion of Christ our Sauiour.	A. G., fl. 1619.; Matthew, Tobie, Sir, 1577-1655, attributed name.	1619 (1619)	STC 11490; ESTC S118624	73,100	210

wherewith the Catholike Church or her children haue thought fit to celebrate our B. Ladyes memory For if they be not rather schoole boyes then schoole men if they be not such as had rather find a knot in a rush then vntye it they will follow the counsaile of S. Augustine in his booke de vtilitate credendi cap. 7. That whensoeuer any phrase or speach is vsed by Catholikes which may sound lesse plausible men are to trauaile vp and downe ouer a whole world if need be for the finding of an excusable interpretation therof rather then to inferre therby that the doctrine or practise of the Catholike Church is impure And so much the rather are they bound to do it because there is no word which hath not in this respect the nature of a Medall that is it hath a right side and a wrong and so hath euery garment which they weare And as he were a foolish seruant that would apparell his Maister with the wrong side outward because there are two sides so they are to be contemned and cast out as wranglers who wil needs take the words of another man in the ill sense especially when he protesteth to meane them in the good most certaine it is that by the same measure whereby they would take honour from our B. Lady vnder the pretence which they make of our vsing termes that are subiect to the misconstruction of malice a man may as well take credit from the holy Scripture it selfe which sayth That God Almighty hath armes and leggs and passions of the mind like mortall and sinnefull creatures For if those wordes be not vnderstood by a Religious discretion that māner of speach will proue as vnsafe at least as any other that we vse when there is question of doing honour to our B. Lady But as our case standeth we need not that our Aduersaryes should put themselues to ouer much paynes since by the professions that are already made it is euident how all titles of honour vnder God may agree to the B. Virgin and not only that they may be giuen without sin but that it is both piety in them that do it and impiety in them that oppose to it What dishonour is it to an earthly King if his Mother be called the Queen of his Countrey the kingdom is known to belong in right of propriety to the King and she leaueth not to be a subiect though she haue the honour to be called to be the Queen Or what dishonour were it to a King if that Queene were called the Queen of his subiects of whose persons howsoeuer the King alone can dispose in rigour yet who among them being indeed a loyall louing subiect to the King would not hould himselfe for happy in being able to execute any iust commandment of his Mothers Thus thinges do passe euen heere on earth and it is well that they passe so for these are not apish customes nor humorous inuentions nor effects of seruile flattery but they flow from reason and nature and they are warrantable by all lawes both diuine and humane And when any thing is so warrantable a man may well inferre that in the spirituall Kingdome of Christ such thinges are practised with much more eminency perfectiō Nor doth it by infinite degrees so well become an earthly Monarch that his Mother be acknowledged for the Queene of his Countrey and of his subiects as it becometh the Humanity of Christ our Lord that the sacred Virgin from whome he tooke all the humanity that he had vniting it hypostatically to the God-head should haue the honour to be the Queene of heauen which is his Contrey and the Queene of Angells Saints who are his subiects and who are glorious and immortall by the merits of that bloud which he tooke from her alone and vnited it to himselfe CHAP. XI THvs standeth the case concerning the Attributes of honour which Catholikes are glad they haue the grace to giue our B. Lady and touching the other point of her inuocation which is also both auowed deuoutly practised by the Fathers whome I haue alleadged and with whom and in whose company I might cyte the rest Concil Calced act 1. Dionys Areop 2. Eccles hierarch Ambr. l. de viduis vltra medium August serm 84. in Ioan. Athan. serm de annunt Deiparae circa finē Basil orat in 40. Mar. c. I will leaue for the present to presse our Aduersaryes with their authority remitting the more patient Reader to whome he will of an hundred Catholike Writers who haue clearely euicted this point of controuersy for my part who could not passe it ouer wholy in silence I will in very few words debate how the case standeth with them in reason according to the grounds of their Religion If inuocation of the Saints in generall and in particuler of the glorious Virgin be reiected our Aduersaryes must doe it first if they will be true to their own grounds for reasons drawne from Holy Scripture When they presse vs to proue it by testimony therof they are iustly tould that they proceed impertinētly For they are the men who should proue it to be forbidden by Scripture not we that it is expresly enioyned For vnles it be forbidden they cannot vpon that reason disclaime from the vse thereof who doe themselues practise diuers things whereof there is no expresse commandment in Holy Scripture as namely they baptize Infants and they obserue the Sabbaoth vpon the Sunday c. Exod. 20 The later of which points is so far from being cōmanded that it rather seemeth to be forbidden Act. 15. when the Saturday is clearely assigned for that purpose Nay the eating of bloud and strangled meats was prohibited to the Christiās of the Primitiue Church which yet the Caluinists make no scruple to eate as well as we which in vs is no offence who obey the Church which telleth vs that the tyme of keeping the Sabbaoth was ceremoniall and consequently abrogated by the comming of Christ that the Precept about abstaining from those meats was but temporary and that now the date therof is expired But our Aduersaryes who say they are only guided by that which is deliuered to them in Scripture are conuinced by their owne practise to be Hypocrits and may iustly be doubly accompted so if whilest they practise those thinges which are expresly against the Commandment of Holy Scripture they do yet reiect the Inuocation of Saints only because we do not shew as they say that it is expresly inioyned by Scripture Two reasons they vse to bring against it the former whereof pretendeth to shew that it is not lawfull the latter that it is not conuenient But whosoeuer marketh their proceeding well shall find the weaknes of their cause by this that howsoeuer these reasons be of very different nature and independent of one another yet if they be well encountred they neuer sticke to either of these pretences a part

with the more reason passe ouer with breuity though I could not perswade my self to passe ouer any thing entierely in silence which concerneth her excellency any way But the spirituall graces which she receaued and the testimonyes of her dignity which were giuen from heauen are they which we ought more seriously to ponder reflect vpon Her life being such as seemed ordinary though interiourly it were not so and her vocation being so extraordinary as that she was to be made the Mother of God himselfe when once he should be made Man it was agreable to the wisedome of the diuine Maiesty to proclaim and publish to the world the perfection of this creature by an irrefragable euidence Luc. 3. Therefore as in the Baptisme of our B. Sauiour whereby he might seeme to haue contracted sinne the Holy Ghost himselfe descended vpon him to witnes the infinite sanctity of his soule In like manner when before that tyme there was question of incarnating and bringing forth a Sauiour of the world in humane flesh one of the highest Angells in heauen was dispatched in Embassage to witnes the eminency Luc. 1. and fullnes of her holynes that the world might know how that her bringing forth a son should not carry with it the least impeachment to the spotlesnes of her purity The Arch-angell then did thus salute her Luc. 1. Hayle Mary full of grace our Lord is with thee Our Aduersaryes the enemies of our B. Ladyes Honour will needes translate the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to that sense of the three seueral ones which it hath whereby they may hope to disaduantage her most therfore they will not allow it to signify Gratia plena Cōment in cap. 1. Luc. full of grace but Gratis dilecta freely beloued It is plainely shewed by Tollet in his Cōment vpon those words that S. Ambrose S. Austine S. Hierome S. Athanasius S. Epiphanius and in effect the whole Church hath vsed receaued the translation of Gratia plena though yet if it had been otherwise I see not greatly why they should triumph as after a victory since if our B. Lady were as they must confesse Freely beloued with such an eminency aboue all other creatures as to be made the Mother of God it doth by necessary inference of congruity imply all those perfections in contemplation wherof the Catholik world doth homag vnto her with attributes incomparably superiour to them of all other creatures But she was found full of grace whether they will or no and if then she were full through the beauty of her soule which being first adorned by Almighty God drew his eyes afterward so downe vpon her as euen to be enamoured with her when he was yet to make her the Mother of the Eternal Word let them conceaue that can how she ouerflowed therewith afterward And the example of the good Chananaean who did as it were oblige our Sauiour to bestow of those crummes vpon her being a Gentile which fell from the table of the children of God who were the Iewes may inuite vs to begge that some drop of those ouerflowings which cānot through the goodnes of God but descend from the superabundance of that grace wherewith the B. Virgin was so much more then filled may be applyed to our benefit and to the making of vs gracious in his sight in som measure which she was beyond all measure It cannot but worke in vs an extreme reuerence on the one side when we heare by the voyce of that Archangell Gabriel that our Lord euen then was with her in a most particuler and plentifull manner Luc. 1. saying Dominus tecum Our Lord is with thee as if he had sayd He is indeed with all his creatures and especially withall his seruants but yet he is so with thee per excellentiam as if he were with no body els and on the other side they are miserable who be not drawne to affect this Sacred Virgin with vnspeakable dearnesse tendernes for the infinite benefite which they receaue by her since they are capable of saluatiō by the mystery of the Incarnation which hauing beene decreed in that high Consistory of the Holy Trinity did receaue effect and execution in the immaculate wombe of the B. Virgin by her free consent And as in the Passion of our B. Sauiour when he came to make a ful point vpon the periode of his life he did as it were resigne his Mother to mankind in the person of S. Iohn Ioan. 19. when he sayd to him Fili ecce Mater tua Sonne behould thy Mother so in this Incarnation of his she may be sayd after a sort to haue transferred the propriety which she had in Almighty God Luc. 1. who was with her Dominus tecum to the protection and preseruation and sanctification redemption of all mankind for immediatly afterward he grew to be called not Dominus tecum Our Lord is with thee Matt. 1. but Emanuel which is God with vs. The Angell proceedeth vpon occasion giuen by the sacred Virgin to expresse the manner how the mystery of the Incarnation of the Sonne of God was to be accomplished in her sacred wombe he declareth to her that she had no cause to feare the least spot in her purity that she had found grace with God that in her wombe she should conceaue bring forth a Sonne Luc. 1. and should call his name IESVS that he should be great and be called the Sonne of the most High that our Lord God would giue him the seat of his forefather Dauid that he should raigne in the house of Iacob for euer that his kingdome should know no end that the Holy Ghost should descend from aboue into her and the Vertue or Power of the most High should ouershaddow her and therfore that he who was to be borne of her should be called the Sonne of God Quis surdus sicut populus meus sayth the Holy Ghost by the Prophet Isa 42. Who is so deafe as my people that wil not heare And in this case it may be sayd who is so blind as he that will not see what a cluster of heauenly grapes may heere be gathered out of Holy Scripture distilling in abundance the wine of Grace Glory vpon the imaculate Virgin by describing the nature quality of that Sonne of which she was to be the so happy Mother What doubling and redoubling is there made heere of her felicity and sanctity For notwithstanding that formerly she was full of grace we see heere she hath found more grace her Sonne was to be the Sauiour of the world he was to haue an Eternall Kingdome the Holy Ghost was yet more plentifully to descend vpon her and the vertue or power of the most High was to enuirone and ouershaddow her whereby she might be enabled to enclose and as it were againe to ouershaddow the Sonne of God The consideration heerof made the

him out as if he were some miserable aged Prince that were in feare of being deposed if he should raise his fauorits to any extraordinary degree of greatnes But the case standeth far otherwise for as God is infinite in all thinges so is ●e most eminently infinite in the communication and effusion of himselfe vpon all such soules as do nobly serue him and especially such as do it with greatest perfection and are enabled by him to vndertake and discharge the highest functions The Patriarkes were made wonderfully fit for their offices the Apostles for theirs the Precursour of Christ for ●his his supposed Father S. Ioseph who really was his conductour guide gouernour for his And so the immaculate pure most gracious and most glorious mother of God was aboue all made most fit for hers But we may first descend a great deale lower yet not loose the sight of her greatnes For there is not the meanest of vs all who shall not at the day of iudgment if he dye in the state of Grace haue a body which shall then be knit to the Soule more glorious then the Sunne as impassible as the Angells incomparably more subtile then lightning and we cannot now so easily translate a thought from one end of the world to another as then we shall be able to transport our selues as it were in an instant We shall be immortall we shall be Heires of the kingdome of heauen we shall be Coheirs with Christ and if he be a King we shall all be also kings of heauen Fellowship in possessing of that kingdome doth not weaken or lessen the excellency of dominion as it would do heere on earth but it doth highly beautify and increase it through the vnion of will which reigneth in those happy soules Our Sauiour speaking to his Apostles and disciples and in their persons to such as would keep his commandments entreth so far by words of tendernes as to despoyle them of seruitude and to cloath them with the precious robes of friendship Ioan. 15. Vos amici mei estis c. as if he had sayd No longer will I accompt you now my seruants but I will aduance you to the ranke of being my friendes Luc. 13. He had formerly auowed to the Apostles that he disposed of his kingdome to their vse as his Father had disposed thereof to his Againe he assumeth them Matt. 19. that they who had left all and followed him should sit vpon twelue seats and iudge the twelue Tribes of Israell whereby the whole world is signifyed 1. Cor. 6. And S. Paul taketh vpon him to warrant that Christians shall iudge euen very Angells at the last day Now this Iudicature is an act and exercise of a Kings royalty and the reason why earthly Kings do it not in their own person is because either they want knowledge or industry or for that they cannot be in so many places in so short a tyme as were conuenient but none of these thinges can be sayd of Christ and therefore when he maketh his Apostles iudges it is not to excuse himselfe but to impart to them a kind of supreme honour and authority ouer the rest his creatures We see then the vnspeakable bounty of Almighty God towards all such as are to prayse and serue him in the Court of heauen for all eternity we see that some of vs shall iudge the world That we shal iudge Angells That we shall be Kings of heauen heires to God and coheirs with Christ yea and That euen in this life such as keep his Commandements are already intituled by the name of Friends or Fauorits of Christ Iesus And is it possible for any Christian to haue so little and so poore a soule as to thinke that the Mother of God is not to be honoured in a manner much superiour to all this Is it possible that since God doth not make Officers as earthly Kings make thē who take such as they find whether they be good or bad so they continue but he first maketh men fit for the places to which he calleth them Is it possible since the dignity of the Mother of God doth vnspeakably exceed the dignity of Patriarchs Prophets Precursours Apostles and whatsoeuer imployment wherof a pure creature is capable that any man should be so voyd of natural Logick as not to draw an argument from the lesse to the greater That if the lesse hath much excellency the greater hath much more Or rather that he should haue so little wit or common sense as not to see That as in numbers the more do exceed the fewer so our B. Lady doth outstrip all the other creatures of God in greatnes in grace in authority and in Maiesty Let not therefore our Aduersaryes for so in respect of their opiniōs they wil needs deserue to be called deceaue themselues Conclusion They may thinke it is zeale which they haue in abasing the honour of our B Lady whereas indeed it is but ignorance in the most innocent of them and in others either hypocrisy or enuy Mat. 2● Many of them who saw how Caiphas did in that solemne assembly of Priests Doctours of Hierusalem cast vp his eyes to Heauen and rend his Pontificall garments exclaime with horrour against Christ himselfe affirming that he had blasphemed did doubtles iudge by the appearance of it that the High Priest had some reason And some couetous or malicious Iew who had beene present when Iudas censured the matchles enamoured Penitent of our Lord S. Mary Magdalen as wasting that precious oyntment vpon his head and crying out that it should rather haue beene imployed vpon the poore would as willingly perhaps with as much reason haue giuen his voyce with Iudas against Christ as these men do eagerly maligne and of whome I haue seene some grow pale and euen sicke through the rage of enuy when they obserue how curious and costly we are content to be in our desire not only to anoynt as it were and adorne the head of this sacred Virgin with our prayses but to cast our selues at her pure feet by our Inuocations Therefore heere the Prouerbe may well come in All is not gould that glistereth and that twinckling Brother who in the zeale he pretendeth to carry to Gods honour doth secretly repine and snarle at that of our Blessed Lady insteed of making for himselfe a Crowne in heauen may then be hammering out eternall chaynes for his soule in Hell This may serue to them for a word of aduice that at least they may vse modesty in this matter if they will not be drawne to vse piety But we Catholikes are farre from needing such aduice as this who know our dutyes towardes the blessed Mother of Almighty God and who are not in this respect to be drawn from lesse wandring but to be incouraged towardes a faster going I doe therefore presume to cast my selfe with most entiere veneration at thy pure feet O