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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	christian_a	king_n	time_n	1,755	5	3.4673	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43673	A sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of Worcester on the 29th of May, 1684 being the anniversary day of His Majesty's birth, and happy restauration / by George Hickes ...	Hickes, George, 1642-1715.	1684 (1684)	Wing H1867; ESTC R20005	24,972	46

quod Principi placuit Legis habet Naturam that the Princes pleasure was a Law Or such as was the Power of all Kings in the Kingdoms of Ancient Times founded after the Flood when as Justin in his Epitome tells us arbitria Regum pro Legibus erant that the will of the King was a Law unto the People Or lastly such as is now the Power of the Turkish Russian Persian and Morocco Emperors who rule purely by Regal Authority without any Political Regulation having Absolute Uncontrollable Power over the Lives Fortunes and Liberties of their People and of whom I may truly say as Daniel said of Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 5.19 for the Majestly that the High God hath given unto them all their People Nations and Languages tremble before them for whom they will they slay and whom they will they keep alive whom they will they set up and whom they will they pull down I say Civil Slavery or Capativity consists in being obnoxious to such an Unlimited Arbitrary Dominion as this which rather deserves the name of Military than Civil Power but the People that are Subject to a Conquering Rebel or Rebels are subject to such an Unlimited Absolute and Arbitrary Power which is under no Civil Regulation but as the forecited Fortescue wisely saith of meer Regal Power it can give Laws to the People and lay all manner to Taxes and Burdens upon them without their consent and let me add take away their Lives by a High Court of Justice or by any other Arbitrary way without Tryal by Law or Peers nay without any Tryal at all For their Power is an Usurped Military Power not under the wholsom regulation of Laws but as Arbitrary as the Sword and as Tyrannical as their Lusts will make it and if they do not oppress the People after they have mastered the Lawful Government it is generally because their Policy over rules their Ambition and Cruelty and not that they are truly good It is seldom that Rebels have any regard or tenderness to the Peoples Blood or Treasure or if as Cicero saith of men who make their Interest their Supream End the goodness of their Nature may chance to over-rule their Evil Principles yet the People that are subject unto them are all the while in the Lions Den the Beast may perhaps be good humoured and Generous but still he may eat them when he will Therefore every successful Rebellion makes the victorious Rebel a grand Seignior the Sword is his Title and his standing Armies the Laws by which he Governs so that in the most absolute Monarchy that ever was Rebellion may alter the Governors but not the Government which will be still as Arbitrary as the will and pleasure of the Conqueror can make it and all the Benefit that People under such a Revolution can possibly reap by a prosperous Rebellion will only be that of the Ass in the Fable who complained that tho' he had changed his Master and Paniers very often yet still the burden was the same I say in the most Arbitrary Government where the People are perfect Slaves Rebellion will not likely mend their condition because the Conquering Rebels will still be their Lords and Masters and they must still abide Slaves They change their Master but not their Service their Lords but not their Vassallage all the difference is that they have an Usurper or Senate of Usurpers to rule over them instead of their Natural Soveraign and have set up their Fellow Subjects in his Place This generally speaking is so true and so agreeable to the common report of Histories that would the Subjects of the most Absolute Monarch consider it they would never follow the most plausible Ring-leader into Rebellion against their Natural Soveraign but most of all would the People of a limited and regular Government who have their Properties and Liberties secured by Law consider That a Conquering is an Absolute and Unlimited Power they would abhor the thoughts and abstain from all appearance of Rebellion which in the end must either render their own Soveraign or the Victorious Usurpers which is ten times worse absolute Lords over them and themselves by consequence perfect Slaves For if their rightful Soveraign against whom they rebell prevail then they and their Estates must ly at his mercy and they will be content on any condition to redeem their forfeited lives but if their pretended Patriots their Leaders into Rebellion prevail then They become their Absolute Soveraign and may dispose of their Lives and Fortunes without asking their consent What can hinder a successful Traitor at the Head of his Conquering Legions from doing what he pleases And who even among those who first set him up and lent him their Assistance dares say unto him What dost thou 2 Sam. 15.5 At first he was their humble Servant he did obeisance unto them and put forth his hand unto them and kissed them at first he sighed for their unhappiness and bemoaned their Grievances and begs but their own assistance to set them free but as soon as he prevails then they must say unto him as the Trees said unto the Bramble in the Parable of Jotham Come thou and reign over us Judges 9.14 15. and when it is once come to that then he will plainly say unto them If in truth ye anoint me King over you then come and put your trust in my shadow but if not let fire come out of the Bramble and devour the Cedars of Lebanon Soon after Absalom had stoln away the hearts of the People by his fair Carriage and Speeches the next News was Absalom reigneth in Hebron and in his short Reign or Usurpation he and his Captains did so enslave and oppress the Subjects of David after they had revolted from him that he compared their condition under the Power of their young Idol to Captivity saying When the Lord bringeth back the Captivity of his People Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad He had assured them before that he desired nothing more 2 Sam. 15.4 than to be in a condition to remove their Grievances Oh saith he that I were made a Judge in the Land that every man that hath any suit or cause might come unto me and I would do him justice This and such like was his Language at first but when he had got a great Army at his Command and had beat the King out of Jerusalem then he could lye with his Father's Concubines upon the top of the House in the sight of all Israel and he and his Adherents could eat up the people as they eat bread The poor oppressed Commonalty saw their own slavery too late and when God besides their expectation had delivered them from it they were so glad of it that they were at strife throughout all the Tribes who should bring the King back Oh said the men of Israel the King saved us from the hand of our Enemies 2 Sam. 19.9 10. he

it had been attended with many notable inconveniencies had it happened at any other time or in any other manner or by any other Instruments than it did Wherefore is it not most reasonable to conclude that it was the Consult of a special Providence since it was contrived in a manner so apparently worthy of the Divine Wisdorn and since the united Reason of Men and Angels could not have contrived it in a better way than it really fell out Certainly the seasonable contrivance of so many wonderful Scenes into every Act and of so many currious Acts into one harmonious Play must needs have been the study and invention of a very skilful Author even of the All-wise and Almighty Dramatist who hath the World for his Theatre and seldom less than a Kingdom for his Stage VI. Another sign of Gods special Providence and Assistance is when a remarkable Event happens to any especially to Publick and Illustrious Persons upon the same day in which another Accident as remarkable as that Exod. 12.41 happened to them before So the same day that the Children of Israel went into Egypt At the end of 430 years it came to pass on the self same day that all the hosts of the Lord went out from thence So the Altar was providentially set up by Judas Macchabeus on the self same day it had been profaned by the Tyrant Antiochus and so as our Church hath well observed it was not without a special Providence that on the self same day in which our Soveraign was born he should as it were be born again in being restored to his Triple Crown VII Another Rule whereby to know when any Event is brought about by Gods special Providence and Assistance is the Correspondency of it to the Prayers of Good Men especially of the King and the Church The Prayers of the Faithful of Faithful Kings especially as of Moses David and Jehosaphat not to mention others both Jewish and Christian Kings and Em peroursavail very much Nay we read of a Turkish King who by a short Prayer to Christ in the midst of a Battel turned the fortune of it when it was desperate against the perfidious Christians who had horribly perjured their Saviour's Name But when a King especially a King so Holy and Just as our late most blessed Soveraign shall Kneel before him who sits upon the Throne and cast his Crown at his Feet When a King so dear unto God as he was shall beg a Blessing of him almost with his last Breath as he did the deliverance of this Day there is great Reason to look upon the performance of it as a special Answer to such prevailing Prayers The King O Lord Ps 21 1.2 shall rejoyce in thy Salvation for thou hast granted him his Hearts desire and hast not denved him the request of his Lips But when not only the Beasts those Prophetical Emblems of Kings but the four and twenty Elders by which are meant Christian Bishops I say when not only Christian Kings but Bishops the chief Ministers of Christ and the whole Church over which they preside shall cast themselves down before the Lamb to acknowledg their sins and beg a deliverance of God then if ever must the Kingdom of Heaven suffer Violence and God appear to be a God that heareth Prayers Wherefore seeing it is the property of the infinitely Merciful God to hear Prayers especially the united Prayers of the King and the Church we have just presumption to ascribe this deliverance to his Special Favour in hearing thheir Conspiring Sighs and Devotions For if two as our Saviour said much more if a whole Church shall agree on Earth touching any thing they shall ask it shall be done for them of our Father which is in Heaven Such are the Characters of Gods special Providence and Assistance whereof any one appearing in any event is sufficient to justify the imputation of it to the special hand of God But that they should all be visible in one Event that such a mighty Revolution should be effected by very improbable means and fall out so seasonably to prevent the Destruction of a destitute exiled Prince and the utter ruine of a desperate Righteous Cause and a pure Apostolical Church that so much unspeakable good doth accrue by it to the Publick and that Oppressed right and innocency were thereby relieved and publick Justice done upon the Sons of Usurpation and Blood that so many various accidents should so happily conspire to bring it about and that it should happen upon the same day which was remarkable before for the appearance of the Star and our Soveraigns Birth Lastly that it should fall out in correspondence to the Prayers of good men especially of the King and of all that had kept their Garments unspotted in this suffering Apostolical Church Such a wonderful Complication of all these marks in one Event must needs force all but Atheists or Epicureans who are more absurd than Atheists to confess with David that it was the Lord who brought back our Captivity and cry out with the Church in the 118th Psalm This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Which brings me in the third place to consider the duty which a People so wonderfully brought back from Captivity ought to perform which I told you was to render praises and thanksgivings to God as it is written in my Text When the Lord bringeth back the Captivity of his People Jacob shall or ought to rejoyce and Israel shall that is ought to be glad This is the import of these Phrases of rejoycing and being glad They signifie Religious joy and gladness expressing it self and exulting in praises and thanksgivings unto God So in the 118 Psalm which the Royal Psalmist made after he was Anointed King of Israel The voice of rejoycing and Salvation is in the Tabernacles of the Righteous the Right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to pass the Right hand of the Lord is exalted the Right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to pass The Stone which the Builders refused is become the Head-stone of the Corner this is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our Eyes this is the day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad therein bind the Sacrifice with Cords even unto the Horns of the Altar thou art my God and I will Praise thee thou art my God I will Exalt thee O give thanks unto the Lord for be is good for his Mercy endureth for ever Almost all the Psalmes of Praise and Thanks-giving are full of expressions of Joy and Gladness because Religious joy is the Fountain from whence all Praises and Thanksgivings do proceed and the proper passions and dispositions of mind which make them acceptable unto God Therefore saith the Psalmist in another Psalm O le joyful in the Lord O ye Lands Serve the Lord with Gladness and come before his presence with a Song This we have done and