Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	father_n	great_a	lord_n	3,626	5	3.5504	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12604	The eunuche's conuersion A sermon preached at Paules Crosse, the second of February. 1617. By Charles Sonnibank, Doctor of Diuinitie, & Canon of Windsor.	Sonibancke, Charles, 1564-1638.	1617 (1617)	STC 22927; ESTC S114127	43,380	142

man another there harken to God It is a most Christian and worthy answere fitting this present purpose worthy of all your attention and obseruation which was giuen by Valentinian the Emperour to Symmachus which is recorded in the fift booke of Saint Ambrose his Epist Symmachus a heathen man and in all likelihood an excellent Oratour such a one as was Tertullus of whom there is mention Acts 24. hauing penned an eloquent speech the scope and purpose whereof was to perswade the Emperour that embraced the Christian religion himselfe and was resolued to haue the same receiued and professed in his Empire that he would bee pleased to permit the ancient Citie of Rome to hold her olde forme and to keepe and vse the olde manner of seruing her heathenish Gods thus he tuned his pipes and thus he bespake the Emperour Regard saith Rome mine age which haue now stood a thousand yeares and shall I now at the last be checked and controuled in my olde dayes This religion which wee now seeke for sue for at thy hands O Emperor was that which won to Rome the soueraignty of the earth which repelled and beat back that cruell Hannibal from scaling of our walls which preserued our goodly Capitoll out of the French mens hands And now it were a reproach after so long time so many Ages to haue it quite reuersed Much more was spoken all very suiteable and like if you marke it to the discourses and speeches of our Papists but for an vp-shoot and for a concluding argument that was at last brought in that his owne Father before him had suffered them to enioy that forme and manner of seruing their Gods and neuer disallowed it and therefore it was his part to permit it so likewise But the worthie Emperour as Ambrose saith in his funerall Sermon vpon him beeing resolutely addicted to the defence and maintenance of Christs glory made this answere Let Rome my Mother intreate any thing else at my hands and aske what else she will of me I owe vnto her I confesse a very great dutie and affection because she is my Mother but I doe owe a greater to God my Father who is the author of my saluation This was a worthie answere of a worthie Prince from whence wee may learne this instruction In matters which concerne the glory and seruice of God not to stand vpon the will or words of men but onely on this only point Sic dicit Dominus thus saith the Lord and with thankfulnesse to receiue his trueth whensoeuer it is brought vnto vs. And surely if our ancient Fathers the olde and first Christened Gentiles of this our Iland of Great Britanne other faithlesse at the first and Heathenish Kingdomes had not held this rule and kept this course when it pleased God in great mercy that the Gospell of his Sonne Christ and his sauing truth was first brought vnto them then might they and we still haue remained in our ignorance and infidelitie then should they and wee haue continued aliens from the common-wealth of Israel strangers to the couenants of grace bondslaues to sin and Satan not onely depriued of that glorious name by which we are called Christians of Christ but also debarred from hauing any part or portion in that great worke of mercy and redemption which was wrought by Christ For they might haue replied to them that were the first messengers and preachers which first brought vnto them the glad tidings of the Gospell and haue saide vnto them as the Athenians did to Saint Paul Act. 17.18 What will this babbler say hee seemeth to bee a setter forth of strange gods in that he preacheth vnto vs Iesus and the resurrection They might haue said vnto them Our Fathers worshipt the Queene of heauen they beleeued on Iupiter and Apollo they sacrificed to Mars and Venus they worshipped the Moone and the Starres and so did their Fathers and great Grandfathers and Ancestors some thousands of yeares before them and shall we now begin to listen to a new and vp-start Religion and renouncing those ancient Gods that they so long serued controll their iudgement and so admit of a new-found doctrine worship new-found Gods But it pleased God to mooue their hearts to receiue with meeknesse that truth and so by succession to deriue vnto vs that truth which was and is able to saue both theirs and our soules You see Right honourable Right worshipfull and beloued in the louer of your soules Christ Iesus to vvhat issue this point is brought and what it is that I ayme at namely that as this noble Eunuch renounced the Idolatry of his Country and the superstitions of his Ancestors and Forefathers not suffering them to be a rule or making them a president to himselfe either for his faith or for his manner of seruing God but went vp to Ierusalem there to worship him in his holy Temple so it is the duty of all men to renounce all false superstitious worship of God and to entertaine his holy truth whensoeuer and by whomsoeuer it is reuealed and brought vnto them how many soeuer or how mighty soeuer or how neere or deere soeuer they be vnto them that do discountenance and withstand the same Now although this be a most vndoubted truth and that our Aduersaries doe knowe it in their consciences so to be yet doe they neuer giue ouer to obiect and with a full mouth to exclaime against vs filling the ayre and the eares of men with these and the like frequent questions demaunds What were all our Ancestors and Forefathers deceiued liued they all in error did they all of them misse and mistake the meanes which leade vnto saluation and by consequent did they all misse the end Did so many millions of them perish and vvere they all damned In answer of which their demands which they so willingly and frequently make and by which they haue inthralled many soules especially of the simpler sort and such as are vnlearned carying them away captiue and making them bondslaues to the man of sinne the Antichrist of Rome I will lay downe these three propositions 1. Proposition First They were not all Papists that liued in the time of Popery and so by consequent all our Ancestors and Forefathers were not Papists Secondly They did not all die Papists that in their life time were Papists Thirdly Some that both liued and died Papists in many points yet holding the principall and fundamentall parts of Gods blessed and holy truth might be and vvere also saued And first not to speake of the first six or seauen hundred yeeres after Christ which were the purer times of the primitiue Church in which neither the name of Pope nor the doctrine and points of Popery as now they are held had any beeing or footing in the Church if we shall descend to the lower and later ages and times wherein Popery or the religion of Rome grew strong and held her head at the highest wee shall

Gentiles not onely Plato and many other of the more intelligent better sort of Philosophers but Poets also as Iustine Martyr writeth saw them became as he speaketh Fures Mosis Prophetarum theeues of Moses and of the Prophets And howsoeuer the Apostle Saint Paul affirmeth in the ninth to the Romans that to the Israelites pertaineth the adoption and the glory and the couenants and the giuing of the law and the seruice of God yet did it also please the Lord that the knowledge of his law and the manner of his holy worship and seruice should in some degree and proportion and that many times by diuerse accidents and strange meanes bee deriued and communicated in all ages to Heathen men and Gentiles So in the old Testament by reason of the two great Captiuities of the Israelits the one into Egypt the other into Babylon the knowledge of God was spred in those Nations and from thence both the Grecians and the Romans fetcht a great part of their best and most mysticall and diuiner kinde of learning And though the Israelites spoyled the Egyptians of their iewels and other costly raiments yet the Egyptians spoyled the Israelites of a far more precious iewell euen the knowledge of the true God Thus you see how by all or by some of these meanes some glimse or portion of the knowledge of GOD might come into Aethiopia To conclude this point It was promised to Abraham it was prayed for by Salomon it was prophesied by Esay fore-told by Dauid that strange Nations should knowe the Lord and should be made his sonnes and vvorship him in his holy Temple It was promised to Abraham In thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed Gene. 26.4 It was prayed for by Salomon and mark I pray you how Salomons prayer reacheth and fitteth the person of this Eunuch Touching the Stranger saith Salomon that is not of thy people Israel who shall come out of a far Country for thy Names sake and shal come pray in this House meaning the Temple heare thou in Heauen and doe according to all that the Stranger calleth for vnto thee 3 Kings 8.41.42.43 It was prophesied by Esay The Gentiles shall walke in thy light and Kings at the brightnes of thy rising vp thy sonnes shall come from far Esay 60.3.4 And Dauid more plainly and particularly pointeth at this Eunuch's Country saith Aethiopia shal haste to stretch her hand to God Psal 68.31 2 Secondly he is said to haue been an honourable Personage chiefe Gouernour and Treasurer to the Queene of that Country of Aethiopia This sheweth that Nobilitie may stand with Christianity and that honour and greatnes riches vvealth doe not in themselues hinder men either from the knowledge or from the worship and seruice of God Although Saint Paul saith 1 Cor. 1.26 that not many noble men not manie mighty men not many wise men after the flesh are called yet he doth not exclude all noble men all mightie men all wise men after the flesh from beeing called to the knowledge and seruice of God For if all things come to passe by the direction and appointment of God so that without him not a sparrovv lighteth on the ground Math. 10.29 If euery good gift come from aboue from the Father of lights Iam. 1.17 If preferment come neither from the East nor from the West but it is God that maketh lowe and maketh high Psal 75.6.7 Then to sit at the stearn of Common-wealths and to guide Kingdoms to be borne of royall bloud to come from the loynes of Princes to sit on seates of iudgement from thence to minister iustice to the people to be aduanced to the highest or to the subordinate and inferior places of power and authoritie to be rich and to haue this worlds goods in great abundance euen all of these and the like they come not by chance nor happen at aduenture nor is it Catch that catch may among the sonnes of men but it is the prouidence hand of God that dispenseth them at his owne pleasure many times to them to whom with them he giueth grace to vse them to his glory to the protection defence of his Church and to the behoofe and comfort of his Saints and seruants Domini est terra et plenitudo eius The earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof whether it be the fulnesse of soueraigne authoritie princely dignitie or the fulness of honor worldly prosperity or the fulnesse of wealth of riches or temporall abundance all these and the like as they come from God and are in themselues rich graces excellent ornaments and euident arguments of Gods gracious goodnes and fauour to them whom before aboue others hee there-with blesseth so are they also if in the vse of them they be sanctified to the owners of them excellent means of doing good and of glorifying God in the gracious vse and imployment of them He was a noble man he was chiefe Treasurer to a Queene a verie great man in his country yet he was also the seruant of God Nay as he was so are all such as are noble great and rich mē in that they are noble great rich the better fitted and the more bound to be the seruants of God The better fitted For gold siluer are metals far more fit to be wrought and to haue precious stones set placed in them than lead or iron so are the mindes of noble and great and rich men for the most part more fit to receiue into them the rich and precious graces the gifts of God than those that are vulgar men of meane condition And as they are for the most part better fitted than others so are they more bound than others to the seruice and worship of God In a ciuill life this is the greatest cōfort Meus sum I am mine owne man and at liberty but in a Christian life this is the greatest comfort euen of the most noble and greatest persons Non sum meus I am not mine owne man but Iesus Christs vvho hath bought mee with a price and hath therefore bound mee to glorifie and to serue him It is a true saying that Maior must be Melior the greater must be the better and to whom God giueth most at his hands he wil require most As therefore mortall men are most bound to honour God most because they are the excellentest of all mortall creatures so those amongst mortall men who are noble or rich or great men either by birth or by imployment or by their endeauours in the places where they liue are most boūd to serue God most because they are most excellent among mortall men Nobilitas ad virtutem obligat nobilitie bindes men as it were in an obligation to be vertuous and he that hath lost his vertue hath broken his bond hath lost his nobilitie argentum suum in scoriam conuertit hee hath changed his