Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A42953
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The demeanour of a good subject in order to the acquiring and establishing peace
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Goodwin, Thomas, 1586 or 7-1642.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing G975; ESTC R22752
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33,660
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45
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Calamities which followed It is I know a much applauded discourse That for the King to please his Subjects to Rely upon their Love and cast himself wholly upon their affections are the only means for him to establish Peace and attain to the height of Formidable Grandure No Prince being so powerful and Rich as he that winneth and so Ruleth in the Hearts of his People But while they urge this to him what in the mean time do they make their King whom they would suppose not to know this and how far it is true For if the constant exercise and practice of Religion Justice and Clemency be not Princely Obligations sufficiently commanding all dutiful and grateful returns from reasonable and good Men Subjects who are not these will never nor ought by any endeavours to be otherwise wonne because the Prince who would gratifie unreasonable Men in so doing knoweth himself to offend against the Rules of Peace God is thereby made angry and good Men to mourn and innumerable must the mischiefs be which will of necessity follow If those Acts of Magnanimity do not Influence them a descent from his Majesty which will render him less Honoured will not purchase him more Love Those bold Men from whose ill representations the most Heroick Vertues are Traduced need not much use of Art to bring compliances under contempt For they must either be assented to through want of Judgment or Tumultuarily Forced And in either Case new Breaches will be made and former made wider Subjects who shall find the advantage they have gotten over their Prince cannot as I said Love him the more because they will less Reverence him neither can they think themselves safe who must alway expect Revenge either of the Blemish left upon reputation then which nothing hath a deeper impression when discovered or the undutiful carriage which hath presumed to take his Throne lower then his Ancestours But still the thoughts of Religion seem to urge an extraordinary care by reason of the manifest dangers said to threaten it And indeed the concerns thereof are so transcendently high that they justly demand all our skill and utmost vigilancy to be employed for its preservation Peace with present and the hopes of our future welfare being all enjoyments which are Religions Blessings Neither can any man truely love his Prince his Neighbour or himself who liveth indifferent and carelesly contented with any thing that beareth that Name whether true or false because such an one hath somewhat which he prizeth at an higher rate in the enjoyment whereof if disturbed or in danger of disturbance he will not scruple as he shall be able to act to the violation of Vnion Nothing certainly more conduceth to Peace then an earnest Zeal for Religion which seeth the State enervated by every Faction that maketh Eruptions in the Church and dareth object all its powers to its exclusion Nevertheless this Zeal must be according to knowledge and the power it useth must be lawful otherwise when it is erroneous and blind it is also head-strong and outragious and so is an adversary to Peace and when it transgresseth the limits of the power the Law prescribeth it undertaketh to defend Religion by Impiety And how acceptable that persons services are who bringeth to the Altar Offerings of Abominations is easie to judge Now the most undoubted powers of contending against Faction and Innovation which every man is allowed and enjoyned equally to use are devout Prayers and Innocence of life Which if duely practised by the professed Children of the Church would alone make her Victorious and prevent all solicitous Counsels of disappointing her Adversaries And it is to be feared that the greatest difficulty is in daring to use and confide in the successes of these best defensive Armes yet if these be not chiefly relyed upon other means afford little or no help When therefore I hear so much daily said of Religion and its Preservation and see these most necessary coercives of attempts upon it so altogether slighted by them who seem most Zealous I cannot sufficiently admire why they undertake so great a work who are most ignorant how to effect it Especially strange it is to observe so much action and fury both condemnable the first for want of Commission the later as contradictory to the Principles of Christianity And to all that are serious the event is foretold when these Agents for Truth are considered for they are either men destitute of Piety having not so much as the Form or else such as proceed to exalt her in the very methods which they condemn in others as tending to her depression By the joynt assistance of most Atheistical Debauches and notorious Hypocrites we are great with expectation of a glorious Church I confess I do not so much wonder at the impudence of the principal Conductors as that many pretending to be and fortunately esteemed Men of Sobriety should be led aside with an opinion and hope of these Mens counsels notwithstanding apparently pernicious For neither Peace nor Religion can stand upon these frames made up of materials unlawfully and unskilfully cast together and disagreeing from what they are to support Religion is not to be modelled by every man who fancieth himself a Workman for that purpose nor if that established by Law happen at any time to be erroneous or deficient in some parts may Subjects without especial Commission for that very end attempt alteration or amendment Every man is bound to be well satisfied of the Truth of what himself professeth but must abstein from what is the Office of Supream Authority only unless that be pleased to impower him to inquire into and correct what shall merit a rectifying inspection Otherwise although they should be never so urgent Religion tolerateth not a relief of her necessities by private mens invading the Kingly Power and Prerogative It is Disobedience from which she will not own assistance Subjects may desire and pray and some few of the wisest and most remarkably Loyal may modestly and privately Petition their King that he would graciously remedy and prevent such evils as the Church susteineth or feareth But in either case they ought evidently to shew the complaints to be of inconveniencies really incumbent and their jealousies to be just and weighty otherwise they give him just suspition of their either Wisdom or Integrity that they are themselves ensnared by ill designing men or would ensnare him No Assembly of men although met together in Council by his Majesties especial Command are to meddle with matters of Religion more then concerneth Piety in the practise any farther then their Master recommendeth it to their care to consider of it and report to him the results of their Consultations To Act Vote or Resolve herein without his leave and direction is to disown his Authority in matters Ecclesiastical and make themselves a Supream Constitutive Power If some very meek Addresses be as I said before modestly and privately made of their
apprehensions of His and the publick Danger by mischiefs threatning the Church and some humble overtures of Prevention submitted to his Princely Judgment they have gone as far as Good Subjects dare But if their Prince see more sharply into his own affairs while they will needs suppose him to oversee it is utterly incoherent with the Office of Religious and good Subjects to use any violence or ill Arts to compel him forasmuch as they can but barely justifie their most humble Entreaties Some have exceeded their Commission and extended their Priviledges from Just and Honourable to Vnwarrantable and Rebellious under pretence that their Prince did not see neither would be advised how imminent his danger was Instead of Faithful and Loyal Subjects assembled to offer him their Lives and Fortunes against Forreign or Domestick Enemies they have first fallen to other Debates and more trifled out time about Eye-sores and harmless Wens in the Body Politick then to apply themselves to the cure of the Distempers so much complained of to endanger the Vitals And then to pare the Nails of his Power and shave the Excrescencies as they call them of his Prorogatives at the time of greatest need as themselves confessed when supplies should have been freest were the onely means they found to restore health to these Kingdoms and exalt above his Neigbours their Princes Scepter At length when his acute Judgment saw and great Spirit disdained their Counsels they resolved as Guardians of a foolish or mad Pupil by Fetters to perswade and most horrid indignities to lash him into compliance and had not Divine Providence as his Shield diverted their aims would no doubt have accomplished their promised Glory and Grandeur by the before practised course of rendring their King Immortal How rationally these and the like actions conclude the Peace of Church and State designed and the Authors meriting the Name of Good Subjects is so unfit to be enquired into that I wonder even Fools and Madmen who take almost any thing upon credit of the Deliverers have no Stones to hurl at these grossest of Pretenders But the Lovers of Peace are excessively ashamed and our incomparably Reformed Church scandalized to hear and observe the most reproachfully distracting studies of men who seem to envy all others the Fame of Religious and Loyal all their expressions proclaiming their restless care of Gods and the Kings Honour But we see that smooth words tend most to the breach of Peace when there is War in the Heart and that no Crimes are so odious as those over which the Name of Holiness is superintended To prevent the excess of which Debauchery of the Mind and the Calamities which inseparably attend it we must warily avoid the creeping Folly at the beginning which admitted openeth the passage for what is most monstrous and prodigious To that end we must reserve no patience of the ear for them who by the magnitude of danger whether fictitious or real perswade men that they may divert themselves somewhat from the exactness of duty This once received presently confineth and enlargeth Obedience at will allowing it no proper bounds or assigned station nor indeed any thing more then a bare Name to serve the basest ends The strictness of Duty towards our Prince well observed is the greatest assurance of Peace because the firmest Bond of Religion being in God and for God performed This calmeth all thoughts in us by begetting a due and seasonable Confidence in our King trusting him with our selves and fortunes which he cannot injure so long as we Love and Honour him And suspition removed we shall be generously executive Ministers of Peace either in our common Employments or the particular charges with which he vouchsafeth to honour us leaving the grand care thereof upon him with whom God hath entrusted it This is virtuous noble and consentaneous to Religion being the Ornament of that Profession While we know our Duty distinguished from our Superiours and act Christianity more than discourse it we need not fear our tranquillity to be over-whelmed by force or undermined by Subtilty For our care of Peace and Religion will make us watchful over our selves to continue Innocent and over Pretenders to keep them from Sacrificing to their Malice and Ambition our most glorious and dearest fruitions And by dutiful returns of seasonable provisions in token of gratitude to our King and the better to enable his Love and Care of us reciprocal affections will alway abound and Gods Blessing will manifest his approbation that this is the onely right course of obteining that Glory may dwell in our Land The Disturbance of the Princes Peace is the same of the Subjects OF this much needeth not to be said to such as are apprehensive what is the Duty of Good Subjects in the acquiring and establishing Peace their griefs shew them also sensibly knowing how much what ever is matter of vexation to their King is perplexity to them and their labouring thoughts are restless until relieved by assurances that he hath overcome the difficulty Others less sensible of the reason are not by their ignorance the more exempted from Sufferings although they too too frequently impute them to contrary causes and so render them heavier and sharper to themselves and others Under Pagan Kings and Magistrates without their Peace and Prosperity a quiet and peaceable life in Godliness could not be presumed to be obteined by the Primitive Christians therefore was it enjoyned as the first work of Piety that Intercessions and giving of thanks should to that end be made for them Certainly the Case is not now altered nor will disorders of Christians greiving a most Christian and Gracious Prince promote Peace and Religion But now the King is become the Churches Defender his Troubles are the Subjects more direct wounds and his Griefs more generally afflicting Sometimes men are troubled and augment their troubles by causlesly accusing their Prince of mistakes when it was their own perversness first disturbed him and that continuing is his farther vexation and much more both theirs and every Mans. It happeneth to them as to a reasty Jade which without cause is sullen and winceth against its Rider discomposing him but Galling its own Back and Bruising its own Heels and being severely Spured and Whip't is the more angry but altereth not its Quallities Nevertheless can have no Remedy but alteration The weakness of many Mens Judgments frequently proceedeth to Insolence and if their Governour go not the way which they prescribe Kick Murmur and Rebell and by disquieting him Gall and Torment themselves Whereas his only desire is that with them he may be quiet and Prosperous The Vexations are great and Spreading until they are reduced to good Discipline but his compliance is most Fatal to all We have an instance in Sacred Writ which will sufficiently evidence the Calamities befalling Prince and People when the Prince is overuled by a Clamourous Multitude Saul being possessed of the Israelitish Diadem was