Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	great_a	keep_v	king_n	4,201	5	3.5963	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94134	The hands of God: or King Davids choice, vvherein are proved: 1. That the least of evills is to be chosen. 2. That war is the worst of evills. 3. That the relation betwixt the king and subject, is the nearest of all relations. 4. That rebells are the worst of men. / As is was delivered in a sermon, By T.S. D.D.	Swadlin, Thomas, 1600-1670.	1647 (1647)	Wing S6216; Thomason E441_28; ESTC R204941	18,903	31

The Hands of God OR KING DAVIDS CHOICE VVherein are proved 1. That the least of evills is to be chosen 2. That war is the worst of evills 3. That the Relation betwixt the King and Subject is the nearest of all Relations 4. That Rebells are the worst of men As it was delivered in a Sermon By T.S. D.D. Printed in the Yeere 1647. TO MY HONOVRED FRIENDS SIR GEORGE CRAHAM AND HIS VERTUOUS LADY THE LADY ALICIA CRAHAM Sir Madam YOVR desires are Commands and have therefore the Obedience of Your humble Servant Thomas Swadlin The Hands of God 2. SAM 24.14 Let us now fall into the Hands of God For with the Lord is mercy or The Mercies of God are great but not into the Hands of Men. IT is a Theme of humiliation This is so the verse begins supra modum angor I am in a great strayte Had it pleased some men of this Kingdome to have followed King Davids course and considered with themselves six or seaven yeares agoe Whether had beene better by Petition to redresse our presumed grievances or by the Sword to remove some pretended evill Counsellors wee had not beene put to this After-game with God that innocence would have kept us on our legs now our repentance must restore us to our legs and so it will I doubt not if wee will observe and doe the Parts and Resolves of this Text of this humble Text The Parts two The Resolves foure 1. We have here a supplication Incidamus in manus Domini Let us now fall into the hands of God This gives up the first Resolve and tells us E malis minimum Division that of Evils the least is to be chosen 2. Wee have here a Deprecation In manus hominum ne incidamus Let us not fall into the Hands of men This gives up the second Resolve and tells us Emalis maximum that of all evills Warre is the greatest Each of these parts hath his reason I shall account them for parts in my discourse and so I pray doe yee so shall you have an equality of Parts and Resolves foure and foure 3. The reason of the former is expressed Let us now fall into the hands of God Miserationes enim cum eo or Misericordiae Dei multae For there are mercies with God or the mercies of God are great This gives up the third Resolve and shewes us Relatorum proximum That of all relations that betwixt the King and subject is the nearest 4. The reason of the latter is implyed Let us not fall into the hands of men Crudeles enim sunt Sacrilegae enim sunt For their hands are cruell hands For their hands are Sacrilegious hands This gives up the fourth Resolve and points out V●rorum pessimum the worst sort of Men When I have unfolded these particulers by way of explication I finde my selfe bound by my Text to give you a double Application 1. Vt in manus hominum incidimus How and by what meanes we are fallen into the hands of men into their cruell hands into their Sacrilegious hands and this will be Inquisitive 2. Vt in manus Dei incidamus How wee may againe fall into Gods hands into his mercifull hands and this will be Exhortative Pars 1. I begin with the first the Supplication Incidamus in manus Domini Let us Now fall into the hands of God Now so our translation reades it and so the purer Copie will beate it ●ncidamus Let us fall i. e. Let us Now fall for it is the present tense And it was then and I would to God it were Now presently to be done But though so why Now why not rather Let us ever fall into Gods hands yes let us ever fall into Gods hands so King David intended but Now especially so King David desired Now that my young Subjects have forgot the cursed counsell of Achitophel and the bloody sword and the unnaturall conspiracy of Absolon Now that my old Subjects are afraid of an enemy from abroad and of a scarcity at home Now that my young Cavalry presume upon their owne strength and gallantry and dare meete the insulting enemy in the field Now that my old Senators despaire under their owne weakenesse and infirmity and dare not looke the Rebell-enemy in the face Now that there is but a step betwixt us and death and God will punish us all you for your past Rebellion and my selfe for my present presumption Now rather then into the Hands of men let us fall into the hands of God This article of Time in respect of King Davids option reflects onely upon his present election of Famine Plague or Warre yet because his thirst after his Subjects good was eminent in the whole course of his Reigne as well in the serene and calme dayes of peace as in the boystrous and stormy nights of Warre I beleeve I shall not erre if I take leave to beleeve that he intended this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a perpetuall rule of Divinity for the youngest and eldest in his Kingdome and tells them That though they were 130000. strong of men fit for Warre besides children and youth and aged yet for all that they should not presume for God could as he pleased tame them and cut them off And though they were diminished of that numerous Army even to one Cypher why yet neither should they dispaire for God could if he pleased de vit pat helpe and save them as well by few as by many So Saint Augustine Nè desperando augeamus peccata propositus est paenitentiae portus Let us not make up the measure of our sinnes and fit our selves for destruction by cowardize and desperation Nor is this any way to encourage presumption but only to allay the other extream so the same Father againe Rursus nè sperando augeamus peccata positus est dies mortis incertus neither let us make up the measure of our sins and fit our selves for destruction by precipitancy and presumption but Now while we have time and Now though wee have but this time let you and I both yong men and Maidens old men and children take out the first letter from each scene of our age from Puer P. from Iuvenis I. from Vir V. from Senex S. and that will make us what wee should be Pius and fit for the best of choyces To fall into the hands of God This yet though the best of choyces must be warily read and as warily understood else wee shall fall into errour if not into Heresie for so were the Anthropomorphites branded and to this day for Hereticks they goe because from such places of Scripture as this The hands of God they presently concluded God had a body and all the organs and instruments of a body From which Errour or Heresie rather have the Papists as I imagine drawen their idolatrous imagerie of painting God the Father in the Image of an old man and his Son Christ like a little childe in

them learned and loyall good and great men in this And next to the hands of God let me fall into the hands of a Parliament so long as it remaines intire and each party preserve their owne priviledges without entrenching one upon another and not suffering a prevailing faction to encroach upon the Prerogatives of Royalty upon the liberties of Loyalty upon the essence of Episcopacy for then the people must expect no Religion in the Church but what the prevayling Lords and Commons shall prescribe them no liberty in the State no property in their Estates but what the mercy of their Fellow-subjects will allow them Hee is no true English man that honours not that feares not a true Parliament for the happinesse of peace is the perpetuall fruit of it but such a Parliament that crumbles it selfe into Conventicles where a small Committee shall have power to make rich men Delinquents and loyall men Malignants and learned men both for my part I neither feare nor honour for the plague of perpetuall Warre is commonly the reward of it and my prayer is A perpetuo bello perpetuo Parliamento libera regem Carolum subditos ejus Domine Let us fall into the hands of God and not into the hands of men for E malis maximum Warre is the greatest of evils It is my 2a 2ae aad my second Resolve 2a 2ae E malis maximum and thus I undertake it Peace is the greatest of blessings and therfore War is the greatest of evils peace is the greatest of blessings positively and comparatively First Positively it is the greatest of blessings for it was the last legacy Christ bequeathed his Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint Basil calls it his farewell gift a gift including all he had given before or promised after his departure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gift dropt from an higher world then this we breath in Joh. 14.26 sayes Saint Chrysostome Peace I leave With you my Peace I give unto you Peace hee gave knowledge he promised his Church Peace hee gave before knowledge he promised after his Ascension The holy Ghost whom the father will send in my name Joh. 14.27 he shall teach you all things Our blessed Master therein telling us peace must have the precedence and first place in our hearts The best order certainely on earth because the onely order observed in Heaven The first place there is given to the Angels of Peace or Love which are called Cherubim the next to the Angels of Light or Knowledge which are called Seraphim But oh the Enthusiasts of our age as if they never meant to come thither they doe most confusedly invert the order for they will first have light or knowledge and that of Revelation then Peace or love and this to none but them of their faction neither so crosse are they to Christ that though he doe yet they doe not account peace the greatest blessing positively Secondly the greatest yet it is and that secondly comparatively too I will but run it over my Wife is a blessing but without peace in danger of a Rape my Childe is a blessing but without peace in danger of a Pyke my Wealth is a blessing but without peace in danger of a Plunder my Liberty is a blessing but without peace in danger of a Reformation my King the best of blessings without peace is in danger of a Rebellion and to be mistaken for an evill Counsellor That we may enjoy our Wives our Children our wealth our Liberty our Religion our King my prayer is Give peace in our time O Lord and let us fall into thy hands And because peace is the greatest of blessings therefore Warre is the greatest of evills the greatest essentially and the greatest effectually the Devill is the Author of it and destruction is the end of it God feldome suffers it but for the greatest sinnes Sacriledge and Rebellion The Israelites never knew the misery of Warre untill they had provoked God by their inventions Josh 7.11 12. 2 Sam. 15.21 and Achans Sacriledge and Absolons Rebellion were not the least of those Inventions nor the lowest of those provocations onely Jeroboams altering Religion 1 Reg. 12 31. and extirpating the high Priesthood which was the Jewes Episcopacy and in their roome instituting the basest and lowest of the people for a Presbytery was higher The best way therefore as I conceive for the Lords and Gentlemen of this Kingdome to remove this Warre is to give God and Caesar their owne the Church her Patrimony that is Gods due and execution of Justice upon the Rebells that is the Kings due And as Warre is the greatest evill in respect of the Author so also in respect of the End for it seldome ends but in ruine and desolation The Philistims warre put an end to Sauls life and Kingdome 1 Sam. 31.5 2. Reg. 10.7 2. Reg. 17.23 Jehues Warre swept away Achab and his posterity The Syrians Warre set a period upon Samaria The Romans Warre gave a date to Jerusalem It was Warre that writ the sad character Jam seges est ubi Troja fuit and as he reckoned up all evill men in Ingratum so it may truely be said of Warre Si bellum dixeris omnia dixeris for it is attended by spoyle and robbery which never leaves pilfering untill it hath squez'd out that abundance which the spunge of peace hath suck't up Would yon see a short and small Map of Warres misery in a word take it thus Imagine you see your Wives and Daughters ravished your Infants tossed upon Pykes or dashed against the stones your dead Parents dragged out of their quiet graves your goodliest Cityes on a flaming fire your houses plundered your bodies dismembred your Lawes subverted your Religion prophaned your Churches defiled and nothing to be heard or seene but weeping and wayling with mournfull lamentation one crying out Nulla salus bello another Heu miseri qui bella gerunt and tell mee then yea tell me now if it bee not high time to say and pray Let us not fall into the hands of men but let us fall into thy hands O God The reason follows Pars 3. which is my third part For with the Lord is mercy or The mercies of the Lord are great reade which you please With the Lord is mercy First sometimes Promethean mercies Jona 3.4 to prevent a threatned danger so in the case of Niniveh their danger was threatned and themselves summoned to destruction within forty dayes but who can tell whether God will have mercy if wee repent and wee perish not They did repent and God was mercifull and they did not perish And here were Miserationes bowells of mercy yearning as a Father doth for his childes past miscarriages and keeping him from misery Secondly sometimes Epimethean mercies to deliver out of an emminent and present danger so in the case of Jerusalem 2. Reg. 19.35 the Assyrians besieged them and intended

towers of strength for his owne security and makes choyce of the Plague which is Epidemicall and Impartiall Et aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regumque turres and knowes no difference betwixt a poore mans Cottage and a Princes Pallace And yet it is the least of these Evils because it is Impartiall as Famine is not because it is not malicious as Warre is And this brings mee to my 2a 1ae 2a 1ae E malis minimum or my first Resolve which sayes E malis minimum of evills the least is to be chosen But soft at first sight here I meete with a double stop and it seemes that King David did not chuse the least of evills For sayes Saint Paul It is a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of God Heb. 10.31 nor doth this seeme to be the least of evils Susan 1.23 for sayes Susanna It is better for me to fall into your hands Yet now I thinke upon it These rubs are easily removed For Saint Paul there speakes of contumacious sinners and considers God as a severe Judge punishing presently and eternally King David here speakes of himselfe a true Penitent and considers God as a mercifull Father punishing here for a time to prevent a punishment hereafter and for ever Fearefull for them to fall into the hands of God but for us if wee bee like King David Hopefull so Estius David considerat Deum ut Patrem In locum in hoc saeculo punientem Apostolus ut Judicem in hoc futuro Againe King David here compares one evil of punishment with another evill of punishment and so better to fall into the hands of God and to chuse the least and easiest that we may avoyde a greater and heavier evill Susanna there compares the evill of sinne with the evill of punishment and prefers Maximum paenae minimo c●lpae the greatest evill of smart to the least evill of fault and so better to fall into the hands of man and suffer evill then into the hands of God Rom. 3 8. and doe evill for wee may not doe evill though good may come of it sayes the Apostle much lesse may we doe sinne to avovde paine In malis paenae datur Juler in malis culpae non datur electio so Lyra and Paeter Martyr V. G. A potent faction will bring downe Lords as low as Commons and the King as low as a Lord to effect this they do by a cunning head frame an oath without supreme authority to maintaine an Army against that Army raysed by supreme authority or to introduce and preserve a strange Religion not above 120. yeares old at most thereby to extirpate a Church-government which hath continued 1600. yeares without interruption and founded by the Apostles at least so confest by the very adversaries to preserve the Priviledges of Parliament and liberty of the Subject without limitation but the Kings person and authority with limitations all which is Treason by the Lawes of this Kingdome and sinne by the Law of God for none hath power to impose an oath but hee that hath power to draw the sword and that power is onely in the King And then doe with a violent hand force their fellow-subjects to take this Oath or rather force it upon them under the penalty of plundering imprisonment and penury In such cases as this we must be ready with the Prince of Coandy when Charles the ninth of France offered him his choice either to come to Masse or be perpetually exiled or imprisoned to Masse quoth he I will not come for that is sinne imprisonment or banishment inflict Sir which you please I am ready to suffer it The noble Army of Martyrs speake this aloud in the silent rethorique of their holy blood That Maximum paenae malum potiùs eligendum quàm minimum culpa It is better going to Heaven in a fiery chariot then to lye at ease in a sinfull couch And nature it selfe teaches us equally with the Scripture in the Serpents wisedome to chuse the least of evils he will expose his whole body to save his head and when we are condemned and may as we please make choyce of our punishment the least of evils is to be preferred if we beleeve the wisedome or piety of King David so it stands uncontrouled Let us now fall into the hands of God and not into the hands of men that was his supplication and my first part this is his deprecation and my second part Let us not fall into the hands of men Pars 2. so true hee is to his owne principles Deliver me from the cruell man O God deliver me from the wicked man O God i. e. from all men for howsoever man was created Homo homini Deus a God to preserve and helpe his neighbour yet now he is degenerated in Homo homini lupus and worse into Homo homini Daemon and worse yet into Homo homini homo because one man is worse to another then either Wolfe or Devill could or can be It past the Devils artifice to contrive the Powder-plot if the Jesuit had not put it in his finger it had never have been dreempt of and it passed both the Devils and Jesuits cunning when Juno raysed a Typhon to rob Jupiter of his Nerves and Sinews if the Puritan had not put in his head it had never been voted much lesse executed And therefore I wonder not that King David is so frequent in this kinde of Deprecation Erue animam meam de manu canis Authol Deliver mee from the hand i. e. from the power of the Dogg By this Dogg Cressolius tells us is meant the Devill whom the Gentiles faigned to be Cerberum tricipitem the three headed Porter of Holl Certainely were they now amongst us they would say in their babling devotion From factions Lords and Rebellious Commons and an Assembly of schismaticall Divines deliver us O Lord. I doe not say From the Parliament No God forbid I should it is the greatest and venerablest Court under heaven and too blame they were whosoever they were that called one Parliamentum indoctum the unlearned Parliament another Parliamentum insanum or Phreneticum the madd Parliament and a third Factiosum or Phanaticum The schismaticall Parliament For wee doe not alwayes give denominations à majore but sometimes also à meliore and the loyalty and wisedome of some Lords and Gentlemen after they have suffered so much blood to be shed Cub may make this at last to bee called The good Parliament God grant it the best that ever was since Henry the first founded that honourably Assembly and if it were well remembred by them that a King was the Founder of that great Court certainely they would bee very carefull of giving a King occasion to bee the Confounder of it There were unlearned men in That and Phrenetique men in the other and Phanatick men the third and there are God increase the number of