Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	absolute_a	king_n	law_n	2,395	5	5.2952	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15704	Of the conscience A discourse wherein is playnely declared, the vnspeakeable ioye, and comfort of a good conscience, and the intollerable griefe and discomfort of an euill conscience. Made by Iohn Woolton, minister of the Gospell. Anno. 1576.	Woolton, John, 1535?-1594.	1576 (1576)	STC 25978; ESTC S106318	42,432	110

of Suppliants written amongst the alwes of Heralds they adiorned vnto them many Princes and people in amitie friendshippe But peraduenture some will aunswere that the french Catholiques did not breake any law of armes in vsing pollicie against their enmmies for saint Augustine in hys questions vpon Iosua sayth When warre is iust lawfull he swerueth not from iustice that pursueth his enimies either by strength or pollicy And euen so Antigonus when one asked him howe he shoulde deale with hys enimies answered Eyther with fraude or dinte of sworde eyther openly or secretly And Virgil. Dolus an virtus quis in hoste requirat Saint Hierome alleageth that verse as seculer but liketh very well therof so farre forth as no fayth troth geuē be byolate But I thinke the word Dolus in the verse to be taken of honest and lawfull pollicies in war And that all subtill cauilátions fraudes and periuries are excepted For the word no doubt signifieth Prudens Stratagema The king of Denmarck vsing fraud and periury agaynst his subiectes is much discommended for that when hee coulde not bring in by maine might certaine pernicious outlawes and pirates hée brought it to passe by pollicy for he pretending open war agaynst forreyn enimies sommoned his men os war to come and serue him and among the rest sent also vnto those theeues both graunting them pardon for all theire offences committed agaynst him and also promised them for their seruice large and liberall wages And when they were commen he straight way put them to death Such pollicyes hauing periury anexed vnto them ought to be detested of al good men and chiefly of Princes whome verity and constancy in words of promises haue alwayes singulerly commended The french Stratagemes are not much vnlike the danish dealings sauing the their pertury was more heynous in Fraunce for that the aduerse part were already come in and had layd down their arniour and weapon and had on their part giuen out infallible and euident signes of their loue and fidelity to their Prince The cruell deede of Peter Arrogon is much detested who slew eyght thousande french men in Cicil for that they had surprised that I le in his abscnce and yet he excercised his cruelty vpon forreyners and straungers but these vpon their own nation and nere kinsnien They seemed to haue set before their eyes the dissimulation of Antonius Cōmodus whose maners they haue exactly expressed For when he was wearyed with filthy pleasures where 〈◊〉 he was exceedingly geuen lest he mighte séem● to spend tune in dooing nothing hee deuysed with him selfe how he might murder the Nobles of his Empire especially he caused one Iulianus to be slayn suddenly and horribly in his bedde and yet in the sight of men he woulde kisse and embrace him calling him his sweete hart and welbeloued father Or hapely they looked nerer home and bchelde the pollicies of some of their Auncestors We reade of Charles the vy king of Fraunce that after long and greeuous troubles in that country he entered into league and affinity with the duke of Burgondy and promised most constantly to bury all auncient quarrels and grudges ther vpon they both receiued at the priestes handes the host consecrated as the manner was in those dayes in confyrmation of their othes and promyses yet notwithstanding when as the sayd king hadde inuited the duke to come to Montrell pretending to entertayne him most frendely and to exhibit vnto him spectacles and triumphes he suffered the duke to be murdered vppon the bridge there as they werein communication together Some may aunswere that how these men kept their fayth they wil not examin but by these doinges there followed tranquility and quietnesse vnto those Regions and country I answere let it be so accounted for y presēt time but if we cōsider the consequence of such truce breakings immayne cruelties we shall finde in the ende vtter subuersion to haue ensewed greate houses and families therefore Surely all good men imbrace that saying There is nothing profitable vnlesse it be also honest And therefore Aristides did openly in the audience of the people reiecte the polliticke counsell of Themistocles concerning the burning of the Lacedemonians Nauy because being profitable it was not thoughte honest Furius Camillus receiued not the children of the Lords of Phalice betrayed to him by their Schoolemaster but stripped him naked and deliuered him to be whipped home wyth roddes by the same Chyldren Kingly vertues in times past haue bene reported to be these Iustice gentlenesse and clemencie but crueltie and outrage haue bene misliked Scipio hath in all ages bene praysed who was wonte to say that he had rather saue one citezen then sley a thousand enimies which sentence the Emperour Antonius surnamed Pius did often repeate Contrariwise it was a shamefull byworde vsed against yong Tiberius to be called Clay tempered with bloud It is no sufficient allegation to say that kings haue absolute power of lyfe and death ouer their subiectes There cannot be alleaged anye greater authoritie then that the Dictators hadde at Rome in whome was the soueraigne power of peace and warre and of lyfe and death and that without appeale Yet might they not execute a Citisen hys cause vnheard and without condemnation by order of law Onely murderers and théeues doe take awaye mens lyues without order of law without hearing the partie pleade his cause and to speake for hymselfe but what neede many wordes It is cléerer then the noone day that cruelty periurie and filthie adulterie are the verie proper noates and badges of Papistes in these our dayes It is much to be lamented that the noble and famous Nacion of Fraūce shold learn of Pope and Turck vnto whom they linck themselues in legue to care for no promise fayth or oth and I pray God in the ende they be not scourged by Antichrist whom they trust and distrust God with whome whiles they seeke to concerue peace and concorde they cānot chuse but be at discord and open warre with god The old Poets doe feine that the proud Giauntes waged battaile agaynste heauen whereby they ment vndoubtedly those that despise laws and breake their oaths most blasphemously abusing Gods name And those that easily commit such offences the Deuel doth wholy possesse their harts by litle and litle and bréedeth in thē a deadly hatred against God wherby they ronne into foule and heynous facts and so at the laste fall into tragicall paynes both in this world and in the world to come Which the Poets ment also to expresse in Iupiter his conquests ouer the sayd Giauntes called Philegians who were caried quick to Hel with a floud sent out by Neptune of whom Uirgil writeth thus Phlegiasque miserrimus omnes Admonet et magna testater voce per vmbras Discite insticiā moniti et nō temnere diuos How gréeuously and odiously men doe prophane Gods

night season Aegeria appeared vnto him and reuealed such thinges as he instituted He knewe right well that all opinions of religion are of no valure without the feare of God and therefore his meaning was that the people should receiue those things as deliuered not by man but by instinction of the powers aboue And therefore men should excéedingly swarue if for the title of the office of a Magistrate they accept al decrées and edicts of Religion which in déede were nothing else then of a ecclesiastical to make a seculer Pope Whiles then wée touch that the care of religion apperteineth to Magistrates we meane not that they may at their pleasures dayly Coyne newe articles of the fayth but that they shoulde follow the examples of Godly Princes who alwayes in the reformation of Religion had an especial eye to the word of god the lantern and light vnto our pathes and steps Nowe as concerning the princes temporall lawes If they be made to the ende to laye vppon men opinion of religion as though the obseruation of them were necessarie then the conscience is burdened and snared contrary to godlynesse For in matters of conscience we haue to doe only with God and not with man In some places the scripture séemeth to extende the same to men as when Paule sayth he walked before God and man with a pure conscience but that is bicause the fruites of a good conscience doth issue and flowe amongst good men but properly as I sayde it appertayneth to God onely neyther doth that place of saint Paule to the Romaines proue that contrarie where a distinction ought to be obserued For although euerye perticuler lawe reach not to the conscience by the generall precept yet obedience to the magistrate is commēded bicause they be of God but the cyuill lawes of princes eyther touching common profite pleasure vniformitie and comelynesse being eyther profitable or pleasant are to obserued kept For althoughe in their properties they be indifferēt yet by meanes of authority they are almost equyualent with Gods lawes and are not by anye meanes to be violated and broken onlesse extreme necessitie vrge and as it were inferre violently to y same Necessitie in déede is pardoned if wilfull arrogancie and malicious contempt of our superiours be absent For in such cases God respecteth the minde and not the fact and where no wilfulnesse is there is hys mercie most readie And for as much as the lawe of God sometime giueth place to necessitie as when Dauid against the lawe did eate of the Shewbread whome Christ defendeth why should not mannes ordynannces a great deale more doe the same so that Malapartenesse and contumacy of our superioures and the offence of our brethren be farre from vs. It now resteth only that neither those that haue good Conscience doe trust in their own merites neither yet hauing an euel Conscience for his fylthy and abhominable life should fall inio dispaire and so finally ronne into desperation That of saynt Augustine is diuiuely spoken Conscience and Fame are two things Conscience is needeful to thy selfe and Fame for thy neighbour But if thou respect thy good name to the vttermost yet it nothing auaileth thee be thou quiet in thy selfe because of a good Conscience in the sight of God. And yet no man ought arrogātly to haue affiaunce in his good worckes and Pharisaically to please himself and to contemne others For the modesty of sinners displeasing them selues for their offences is much acceptable in Gods sight then the worckes and merites of those who in their own conceite accoumpt themselues iust Whiche thing is clearely séene in the parable of the Pharisie and Publican whereof the one pust vp with the opinion of his owne good worcks which affection encombreth euen good men oftē vnlesse they dilligently take héede displeaseth God pleasing himselfe ouer much not only a flatterer of himself but contumelious to his neighboure The other male content with himselfe for hys guilts and offences and beating his breste with most humble voyce craued gods mercy and so the more he was displeased with himselfe the more he pleased God according to that of Saynt August The iustice as it were of God looked downe from heauen saying let vs spare this man because hee spared not himselfe let vs forgiue him because hee forgaue not himselfe he conuerted himself to punish his sinne let vs conuerte to deliuer him August psa 48. This selfe loue and good opinion of oure selues ought to be eschewed and it is beste for vs to thinck simply of our selues and to say with Danyell Wée haue offended we haue committed iniquity we haue declined and gone astray from the commaundements To thée O Lord belongeth glory and Iustice but to vs shame confusion For he glorifieth God that accounteth him selfe a sinner and repenting putteth hys whole trust and confydence in Gods mercy whereas proude Pharises iudge eternall life to be the reward of their vertues and good worcks And what is sinfull man able to doe of himselfe or if he be hable to doe any thing is not that to be attributed to Gods grace by whose gift we are that we are so that in all thinges vnlesse we will be ouer impudent we must néedes graunt our excéeding great imbecility and Gods infinite mercy That trust therefore in our own merites and vayne opinion of our righteousenesse which will not suffer a man to bee humble and lowly but stirreth him to pride and arrogancy is by al meanes as a pestelence to be eschewed For God highly displeased there with taketh from man the right hande of his protection and suffereth vs to haue the raynes at our will and pleasure wherewith wée runne into ruine and destruction And that I may leaue externall accions when wee hapely may be blamles in the eyes of man who dare once open his mouth to saye my heart is cleane séeing that Iob in admiration crieth saying Can that be cleane which is borne of a woman not one albeit hee liue but a day vpon the face of the earth And S. Iohn if we say we haue no sinne we deceaue our selues and the truth is not in vs But if we confesse our sinnes he is saythful and iust to forgiue vs the same and the bloud of Iesus Christ doth purge vs cleane from al iniquity This sentence of that excelent Apostle and so welbeloued of God taketh frō Hipocrits al vayne trust and confidence in their merites and ministreth great consolation and vnspekeable comfort to afflicted consciēces and such as bée vnquieted for their crimes and offences wherewithall they haue estraunged the countenance of their louing father from them S. Paule saith This is our boasting euen the testimony of our conscience But he sayeth again He that reioceth let him reioice in the lord euery man may reioice then in his good deedes but not without the Lord. And therefore we must alwayes remember these three Cawtelles first that we acknowledge all our goodnesse