Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	great_a	pass_v	time_n	1,706	5	3.1051	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64970	The right notion of honour as it was delivered in a sermon before the King at Newmarket, Octob. 4, 1674. Published by His Majesties special command. : With annotations, the contents whereof are in the following leaf / by Nath. Vincent, D.D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty, and Fellow of Clare-Hall in Cambridge.	Vincent, Nathanael, 1639?-1697.	1685 (1685)	Wing V419; ESTC R3122	34,127	86

a Throne yet there is danger still that this Person after some time may come to make his Will his Law and fall off to Licentiousness and Tyranny After many of the common and fully answered Arguments against Monarchy he ends thus But forasmuch as I find the Herald going to proclaim Pharamond King and in so doing to assist at the Funerals of the name of Franks for my part that my Eyes may escape the sight of that miserable fatal Ceremony I will depart immediately into a voluntary Exile in which I shall rather choose to end my days than to live here and see the Native Liberty of my Country destroyed the Equity of the Laws trodden under foot insulting Tyranny set up and all of us reduced to endless Slavery To this Harangue the Historian subjoyns Pharamond's reply in an excellent defence of Monarchy Amongst other things he shows the Benefits of that Form of Government and that the Liberty of the People consists in obeying their Prince for which obedience they can no more be called Slaves than those Seamen who in a Tempest observe the orders of their Pilot. When Count Candidian was commissioned by the Emperor Theodosius to keep the Peace and prevent Tumults at the Council of Ephesus he being a great Favourer of the Nestorian Faction gave order for stopping all Packets both by Sea and Land that no Letters might pass to inform the Emperor or any other Person of what was transacted in the Synod But he himself in the mean time writes to the Emperor against Cyrill and other Bishops First he throws this Calumny upon them that they were so overhasty in opening the Assembly that they would not stay for the arrival of John Bishop of Antioch Then he belies them and sayes that all the Bishops that were at Ephesus were not at the Synod that they were not all summoned and that there were Differences among those that were present With these Letters of Count Candidian Nestorius sends his to the Emperor to the same effect and design only with this difference that Nestorius patched up more lies which he set off with that variety of fair Pretences that they would easily find belief with Persons unacquainted with the Proceedings That profligate Jugler in his Epistle to the Emperor represents himself not only as a Professor of the Nicene Faith but as a most resolute Defender of it and craftily pretends that he came to Ephesus purely upon that account In relating the Transactions of the Synod he begins with the foulest Lyes He denies that the Bishops of Egypt were willing to stay for John Bishop of Antioch who had sent Messengers to give them notice that he should quickly arrive He adds that the Bishops of the contrary Party had acted Tyrannically had given out Menaces had dispersed their Guards about the City to raise Tumults and that they came shouting to his House and threatned to kill him That the Leader of them all was Memnon Bishop of Ephesus Then he complained that all the Churches of Ephesus were shut against him and that he had not so much as the liberty to take the Communion Upon these and such like cunning Suggestions he petitions the Emperor for all his Designs and strongest Efforts drove at that to issue out Orders for adjusting the number of the Synod in which he pretended there were wanting two Bishops out of every Province In the conclusion as if he had been cruelly oppressed by the Orthodox he ends his Letter with this Expression If we cannot prevail for this we desire only that care may be taken for our safe return to our several Habitations for they threaten our very Lives He was subtle in his request desiring to be sent back to Constantinople when he had been deposed from that See a piece of Craft like his Petition for a new Council when he was already condemned in one lawfully assembled There subscribed with him to this Epistle to gain him the greater Credit nine Bishops all rank Nestorians When that Incendiary Catiline had plotted the Ruine of the Government and of Cicero in his Letter to Q. Marcius among other things altogether as bad he writes thus We call God and Man to witness that we have not armed our selves either against our Country or to invade others but only to secure our own Persons from Injuries whilst by the Prevalency and Cruelty of Usurers we are miserable and necessitous most of us are kept out of our Country but all of us out of our Offices and Estates There is not a Man among us who according to his Hereditary Right can have the Benefit of the Laws or when he hath lost his Patrimony can keep his Liberty We do not ask for Power or Riches which are the Occasions of all the Wars and Contests that disturb Mankind but for Liberty which no good Man is willing to lose sooner than his Life He encourages those that were engaged with him in his Conspiracy with these Expressions What I have been contriving I have told you separately but since that Communication every day hath put my thoughts into a greater heat when I have considered that condition of Life which we are to expect unless we recover our Liberties Rouze your selves then and open your Eyes upon that fair object you have so often wished to see your Liberty Your Affairs your Opportunities your Dangers your Poverty and the noble Spoils of War will perswade you better than my Oratory I offer my self to you to be either your General or your Fellow-Soldier neither my Mind nor my Body shall ever be wanting to your Service I hope I shall assist you in these Affairs as your Consul unless I am wrong in my account and that you are better prepared for Slavery than Empire When the Mechanicks of Florence and especially the Weavers were grown jealous of their Governours in the Reign of the Emperor Charles the First after many private Meetings in the night one of the boldest of them exhorts his Companions to persevere in their Sedition with this Harangue Were we now my Fellow-Soldiers to consider whether we should betake our selves to our Arms whether we should fire the neighbouring Houses and plunder the very Temples themselves I should vote with those who would be for advising further upon it and it may be I should rather chuse secure Poverty than dangerous and uncertain Gains But forasmuch as we have drawn our Swords and committed very many Outrages I suppose we have nothing else now to determine but the course we shall take to defend our selves 'till we can secure our Indemnity I can easily believe that we had no ground but our Poverty for the Resolutions we have taken Yet since the whole City is in an uproar and all the Inhabitants are got together to destroy us since there are so many extraordinary Assemblies of the Lords and Magistrates to contrive a way to ensnare us and to make themselves strong enough to cut us off there are two things

Religion and not the bare Dictates of Natural Reason we must learn it from the School of Christ and not of Plato Aristotle or any other and worse Philosopher So that the Heads of my following Discourse will be these two Particulars I. According to the Opinion most Men have of Honour it is either nothing at all or a very slight empty imaginary business II. The Christian Institution does give us the only true account of Honour and doth advance us to the highest degrees of it I. For the first Particular It is certain that Honour is a greater reality than most People make it It must be something more than what it is represented to be by the Leviathan-Philosophy if there be any such thing in Nature For Power alone and as it is distinguished from Goodness is no sign or instance of Honour Power opposed to Goodness is no Perfection or Excellency If Greatness were nothing more than the Commission of great Robberies at Land or Piracies at Sea the Ambition of great Honours the Covetousness of great Riches the Gratification of Envy Malice Revenge and Cruelty the worst of Creatures would be the most Honourable and the Prince of Darkness would be the greatest Prince in Nature Power when it is injurious and hurtful when it is employed in the Oppression of those it should preserve is no real excellency To destroy and ruine is the basest and most degenerate Action that the worst of Men and even the Devil himself can be guilty of The Beeing and Welfare of Mankind are the Reasons of that Honour we pay unto the Author and the Instruments thereof But if to destroy and oppress is unworthy and misbecoming a generous Mind the Power so to do abstractly considered can never be Honourable nor plead a Title to the Significations of that kind Esteem and beneficial Opinion in which external Honour does consist So that Honour is just the contrary to what the Leviathan would make it It must he something else than what he calls by that Name or there is no such thing in Nature And indeed as it is better described by the Schoolmen and their Masters the old Philosophers we can never make any thing of it that we can call substantial and solid As I do not give the name of real Honour to any Excellency that is only the Foundation or Reason of it so neither can I grant that Appellation to the Externals of it to that respect and deference which is often paid where it is not at all due I call Honour attested Goodness since in the best common account of it it is only (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Rhet. l. 1. c. 5. a sign or proof that others think well of us and so Honour shall be sometimes given not for the sake of any good Actions but only of a Power or Obligation to perform them It is commonly said to have its being in those that pay it and not in those that receive it It is something belike we call ours which we can neither command nor secure our own undoubted Right that is always possessed and disposed of by other People According to these Men it is only a splendid Slavery or a Mass of uncertain Riches a dangerous Trust or a barren Title a Formality a Shew a Ceremony an Inscription the late reward of macerating Study or of the cruel hardships of the Camp the easie Spoil of Flattery Malice Ambition or Avarice not so often conferred upon known Merit as revoked upon Mistake or Prejudice the mark of the Envious and the frequent purchace of the Undeserving though long expected and gained with Labour Care and Toil yet quickly forfeited by Negligence Passion Mischance or Indiscretion Now Honour which is the most valuable Enjoyment in this World and which in its Perfection is the Blessedness of the World to come that which is the greatest Gift we can receive from God or Man must certainly amount to something more than we can find in the foregoing Description of it Which brings me to the second Particular II. The Christian Institution doth give us the only true account of Honour and does advance us to the highest Degrees of it It shows us what Honour is in God and in Man I. We are instructed by the heavenly Doctrines of our Religion in the Nature and Reasons of that Honour we render unto God It is observed that the Greatness of earthly Potentates concerns only their Subjects and Allies those they protect or assist and is not regarded by the Inhabitants of far distant Countries Honour is never paid as a just Debt but to those Excellencies by which Mankind is some way or other bettered profited or endeared The Excellencies of the Divine Nature do then only affect and ravish us when we consider that we owe our Happiness Preservation and Beeing to them We therefore adore and reverence the Divine Goodness Bounty and Mercy because we are thereby not only redeemed from infinite Misery but surrounded with innumerable Blessings God Almighty never appeared with so much Glory in the World as when in the second Person of the Trinity he condescended for the recovery of Mankind to take our Nature upon him and to humble himself even unto the Death of the Cross When the Son of God came down from Heaven the way he took to illustrate his Glory was by doing the greatest Good and by making Peace between God and Man When he was to prove his Divinity he wrought not one Miracle only to surprize and astonish the Beholders not one that did not show he was sent to bring Health and Salvation to the Sons of Men and to be the great Example and effectual Promoter of Goodness and Piety This was the end of the Creation for this reason did the Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament shew his Handy-work that the manifestation of his Goodness might be the Glory of his Power He framed the World by his omnipotent Hand not that his Creatures should for ever stand gazing wondring and amusing themselves at his Power but that they should be led on by the consideration of it to admire his Goodness He is unchangeable in his Nature and cannot receive any Additions to his Glory and Happiness by all our Praises and Services This therefore was his Motive That it was a proper Work an action hugely befitting suitable and congruous to infinite Goodness to communicate discover and manifest it self in the exercise of that immense Wisdom and Power with which it is joyned Finite Beeings were not created upon account of any Use Benefit or new Satisfaction to their Maker who was entirely happy from all Eternity in the Contemplation of himself and the infinite Ravishments of his inexpressibly-glorious Nature But he spoke us into Beeing and exercised his Almighty Power in the Production of all things because it was the most natural Use of inexhaustible Goodness to diffuse open and exert it self in all the Varieties of the greatest Love