Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	ecclesiastical_a	jurisdiction_n	power_n	6,879	5	5.5438	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51394	A sermon preached at the magnificent coronation of the most high and mighty King Charles the IId King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. : at the Collegiate Church of S. Peter Westminster the 23d of April, being S. George's Day, 1661 / by George Lord Bishop of Worcester.	Morley, George, 1597-1684.	1661 (1661)	Wing M2794; ESTC R204353	35,240	71

A SERMON Preached at the Magnificent CORONATION OF The Most High and Mighty King CHARLES the II d. KING of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. At the Collegiate Church of S. PETER Westminster The 23 d of April being S. GEORGE'S DAY 1661. By The Right Reverend Father in God GEORGE Lord Bishop of Worcester Published by His Majesty's speciall Command LONDON Printed by R. Norton for T. Garthwait at the Little North Door of S. Paul's 1661. To the Most High and Mighty King CHARLES the II d. By the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Most Gracious SOVERAIGN HOw unwilling I am that any thing of mine should be made publick needs as I conceive no other proof but this That I am now past my great Climacterical and this is the First time that ever I appear'd in Print Neither would I have done so Now unless Your Majesty 's own immediate and express Command which in all things not evidently forbidden by God is alwayes to be obeyed had obliged me to do it And truly I am somewhat the more willing to comply with this Obligation because since the preaching of this Sermon I have been inform'd that some Exceptions have been taken against it As first in General That I medled with matter of State an argument Excentrick to my Profession and Improper for the Pulpit And secondly in Particular That by Repeating and Reviving some passed miscarriages I had trespassed against the Act of Indempnity Now for Answer to the Former of these Charges I shall humbly offer it to Your Majesty's Consideration Whether a Divine even in the Pulpit may not without exceeding the Compass of his Commission endeavour as much as in him lies to recommend to the Consciences and to endear to the Affections of his Auditors the legally establish'd Government both in Church and State And what more effectual Motive is there to make men Conscionably and chearfully to submit to the legally established Government then by making it to appear That it is the best of Governments in it self and the best for them also by putting them in mind of the miseries they have brought upon themselves by the Alteration of it and of the unhappy trials they have made of all other forms of Government that differ from it and consequently how much they are obliged to be thankfull unto God for being Restored to it and to be so much the more Obedient for the future to the Laws of it for having heretofore so Foolishly as well as Wickedly Revolted from it Now if this be no part of a Divines business or if a Discourse of this Nature be Improper for a Pulpit why doth God himself in Scripture command us to put men in mind of these things as he doth Tit. 3.1 Rom. 13.1 1. Pet. 2.13 and in many other places Or why are there Homilies for Subjection and against Rebellion commanded by Soveraign Authority to be read unto the people Or lastly Why are we enjoyn'd by the very first Canon of our Church to preach four times a year at least upon this Argument I mean for the Asserting the Kings Supremacy and Soveraign Authority over all his Subjects And consequently for the condemning of all taking up of Arms against him as likewise all pretences of Jurisdiction over him or of Coordination with him together with the Exercising of any Power Military Civil or Ecclesiastical that is not derived from him which being all of them evidently inconsistent with the Kings Supremacy and Soveraignty the same Authority which enjoyns us to preach for the one must needs allow us at least to preach against the other Which being as much or more then I have done in This Sermon I hope that neither Your Majesty nor any other impartial Hearer or Reader of it will blame me for not keeping within the verge of mine own Profession or for taking more liberty then ought to be made use of in the Pulpit especially at such a time and upon such an occasion when after so long a series of several forms of Tyranny and Usurpation Monarchy which seemed to have been Put to Death with Your Majesty's blessed Father was again Revived by Your sacred Majesties Personal Inauguration in so solemn so magnificent and so glorious a manner beginning with as loud shouts and Acclamations as could be made here on Earth and ending with much louder shouts and Acclamations even from Heaven it self For they that take that voice of God for a sign of his being Displeased with the fore-going Action would perhaps if they had been then present have taken the same voice of God for a sign of his being Displeased with Christs Baptism for it was in Thunder that he spake even then also But whether I am Guilty of the First Charge or no in Medling with things Improper for a Pulpit which if true had been but an Indiscretion onely I am very sure I am not Guilty of the Second I mean of speaking any thing to the prejudice of the Act of Indempnity which had been an high Presumption in any man and in me a sin against mine own Judgement and Conscience For I humbly conceive That whatsoever promise a Soveraign Prince makes unto his subjects so the matter of it be not sinfull he ought in Prudence as well as in Conscience to perform it yea though perhaps he must needs prejudice himself by it Because a Soveraign Princes Word being the best and highest Security he can give unto his Subjects he were better suffer a very great Incovenience by keeping it then weaken the publick Security or hazard the losing of his Credit with his People by breaking it Which Consideration made that wise and great Prince HENRY the fourth Your Maj●sties Grandfather so Religious an observer of his Word that neither the Duke of Mayne nor any other of his Subjects that had formerly stood out against him when they came to an Agreement with him did ever desire or demand any other Caution for security of their Persons and Interests but the Kings word onely And therefore God forbid that I or any man else should dare to suggest any thing unto Your Majesty either publickly or privately in order to the violation of so Sacred a Bond as the Word of a King is and hath alwayes been esteemed to be Especially when the thing it self which a King hath Granted or given his Word for is so Necessary in order to the setling of Himself and of his Kingdome as I believe an Act of Indempnity at this time and in this conjuncture of Affairs to be There being no other way as I humbly conceive after so General and Long a disturbance and confusion to compose and quiet mens minds by Securing them from their Fears or to beget a Mutual Confidence betwixt the Prince and his People without which it is Impossible either for the Prince or People ever to be Happy in one another And therefore

make us instead of judging condemning upbraiding and hating one another to judge condemn and abhorre our selves and consequently to justifie God in his Judgements upon us all so the consideration of the later namely that the having of many Princes hath been the cause of all our late many and great miseries will First Convince us of our former folly in believing so easily as we did those that upon false pretences of bettering our condition by a change did perswade us as the Serpent did Eve out of the Paradise we were in because something or other which perhaps we had a mind to was wanting to us Secondl● it will arm us against the like Temptation for the future with a resolution never to meddle any more with those that are given to change And Lastly it will make us the more thankfully sensible of Gods infinite goodness and mercy in Delivering us from the slavery we were in under the Tyranny of many which is as we have found it to be the greatest of National Judgements and Restoring us again to our former freedome and happiness under one Lawful Hereditary Soveraign Prince which is and I hope we shall find to be so the greatest of National blessings ANd this was my second Conclusion deduced from these words in my Text. But by a man of understanding and knowledge the State thereof shall be prolonged where as I told you before by a man of understanding and knowledge as there must needs be meant one single Person in opposition to those Many which the former Clause of My Text speaks of so by That one single Person must needs be meant such an one as is a Prince a Soveraign Prince because the man here spoken of is opposed not to many simply and indefinitely but to many Princes And indeed no private person though a man of never so much understanding and knowledge is able to prolong a State because that is a work which requires not onely Wisdome and Prudence to conduct it but Soveraign Power and authority to Perform it And yet I will not deny but that it may be sometimes in the power even of a private man to do much towards the recovery and preservation and consequently the prolonging of a State as we read Epaminondas the Thebane did when being but a Private man he rescued his Country from the bondage of the Lacedemonians The like did Thrasibulus a private man also when he delivered his Country of Athens from the Thirty Tyrants And so did Camillus who was not onely a Private but a Banished man when he recovered Rome from the Gauls But what need we Instances out of Foreign Antiquity when we have a Modern example of our own to the honour of our Nation be it spoken which equals and exceeds all I have named or can name in deserving from his Prince and from his Country by his Courage in attempting his Prudence in conducting and his Felicity in effecting that generous glorious and Heroicall design whereby he hath at once redeemed his Country both from slavery and infamy by restoring the King to His People and the People to their King and withall hath purchased unto himself Honour without Envie Greatness with Safety and which is the best reward of virtue in this world a perpetual satisfaction and complacency in himself for having so nobly performed his duty And this was indeed to be a man of understanding Whereas others who being private men would needs be Princes though they thought themselves men of understanding have proved themselves fools their heads being lifted up indeed but so as they little thought they would be and themselves after they had blazed and blustered for a while going out like a snuff and have left nothing but a stink behinde them But to return to what we have in hand though it be true as I have said before that any private man may do something at least by his prayers and some private men may do much towards the preserving and prolonging of a State if they be men of understanding and knowledge that is if they understand and know how to serve their Countrey by serving of their Prince either in Peace by their Counsels or in War by their Courages yet it is the Prince himself who understanding and knowing how to serve himself of several mens abilities in their several professions doth indeed preserve and prolong the State of his Countrey And such a Prince say I is the greatest blessing of God upon a Nation because the state or flourishing condition of a Nation saith Solomon is preserved and prolonged by Him So that according to the judgement of Solomon that is according to the judgement of the wisest Statesman that ever was or will be in the world In order to the prolonging of a State there must 1. Be one Soveraign Prince 2. That Soveraign Prince must be a man of understanding and knowledge And then 3ly He must so make use of that understanding and knowledge as that his own and his peoples happiness may be procured and preserved and prolonged by him And first in order to the procuring and prolonging the happiness of a Nation it must have one Soveraign Prince that is the Government of it must be Monarchical And of this there needs little more to be said for the proof of it then what hath been said already for proof of my former conclusion and what we our selves have felt already by the late tryal we have made of all other formes of Government together with the uneasiness we found under them and the miseries we have drawn upon our selves by them from whence we may undoubtingly conclude that at least for us of this Nation there is no other form of Government but Monarchy under which we ever were or ever can be happy Whether all other forms of Government be Always and Absolutely Unlawful I will not take upon me to determine Stent aut cadant Domino suo Let them stand or fall to their own master But as Christ when he was ask'd whether it were lawful for a man to put away his wife answer'd A principio non fuit sic so may I say of all other forms of Government except Monarchy A Principio non fuit sic from the beginning there was no such Government For as God made man upright at first because he made him after his own Image so he made the Government of mankind upright at first also because he made it after the Image of his own Government which surely is Monarchical And no doubt it was Gods intention it should always continue to be so because as we find no example of any other Government of his approving so we finde no rule of direction for any other Government nor no precept of subjection to any other Government of his prescribing Those we are commanded to submit to by Gods word being either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kings as Supream or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are sent and set over us