Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	time_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	22	3	8.3499	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57569	A true Protestant bridle, or, Some cursory remarks upon a sermon preached before the Lord Mayor, at St. Mary-Le-Bow, Jan. 30th, 1693/4 in a letter to Sir P.D. Bar.	T. R. (Thomas Rogers), 1660-1694.	1694 (1694)	Wing R1843; ESTC R5980	9,682	25

A True Protestant Bridle OR SOME Cursory Remarks UPON A SERMON Preached before the LORD MAYOR AT St. Mary-Le-Bow Jan. 30th 1693 4. In a Letter to Sir P. D. Bar. Odi prophanum Vulgus LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by most of the Booksellers of London and Westminster MDCXCIV Price Six Pence A True Protestant Bridle OR SOME Cursory Remarks UPON A SERMON Preached before the Lord Mayor SIR I Hope these short Officious Remarks will gain your Pardon if not Approbation since they are wholly levell'd against the Licentious Principles which are so much in Vogue and which Naturally tend to shake our Fundamental Establishment and under the Pompous Appearance of Christian Liberty to Shrivel Their present Majesties by Degrees into a meer Fairy Queen and an Emperour of the Moon Among all the Vitious and Impertinent Humours of the Age we live in there is none more equally Lamentable and Ridiculous than that of Aspersing things Venerable and Sacred and speaking Evil of Persons Illustrious in their Generation This is commonly the Refuge of Mean Varlets who have no other way to make any Tolerable Figure in the World but by finding Fault with the Conduct Performances and Inadvertencies of Great Personages 'T is an easie Province that any half-witted Pedant may aspire to without the Art of Thinking or Gift of Ratiocination and he that is neither Honourable nor Beautiful nor Learned nay the Sport and Triumph of Ingenious Conversation can without any Talent play at Criticizing and readily Commence Godly and Censorious and when he is once arriv'd to this height of Confidence with what Pride and Scorn will he trample upon his Superiours and look down upon the bravest and most Accomplisht Men in the World Hence it comes to pass that every Notion-struck Tradesman and Purse-proud Mechanick whose Learning and Education never carried him higher than the Gazette or Counting-Book can run down the whole Ecclesiastick Order with an Infallible Wink or Nod and will take a kind of Malignant Delight in making Remarks upon the little Spots of Bright and Elevated Souls Hence it is That they who are most Incapable of receiving Instruction are most forward to give Advice and he that is Purblind in the most Obvious Matters of Religion and Polity thinks himself Qualified to Expound Mysteries and Spell out the Fates of Kingdoms They who by their Studied and Enormous Villanies are fit to be Objects of Publick Justice are most forward to Reproach the Names and Memories of Kings and some have been seemingly serious in Publishing Pleas for Peace after they have been Nurst Train'd up and Harden'd in the Black Art of Scisme and Rebellion Nay what 's most deplorable of all every little half-Conforming Theologue that is Illuminated into Distraction can justle Omnipotence out of his way give encouragement to a Multitude to do Evil and represent the Mild the Peaceable and Salutary Doctrine of Non-Resistance which has been the Glory and Palladium of the Christian Church in all Ages as an Antichristian Mormo and Bugbear to a Kingdom Among such Doughty Champions for Truth a late Prevaricator at Bow hath descended to List himself He tells us The pretence of a High Court of Justice to judge of their King was an upstart Opinion hatcht by the Heat of War That 't was an Insect of a Days duration and is now disown'd by all sorts of People amongst us Serm. p. 16. That Flattery is one of those Sins which by their own particular Energy occasion the loss of a good Prince and thereby bring Affliction to a People p. 17. That this Detestable Sin of Flattery has drawn Princes to Aspire at Arbitrary Power and God knows how great a Share it had in the Calamity which we Lament this Day That the Notion of Passive Obedience has proved Fatal to those that have hearken'd to it That Liberty gives the True Relish to all the Comforts of Life pag. 18. To all which I Answer That Our Reverend Teacher like some Blind and Bewildred Traveller seems to have lost his Way and while he affects to Dictate so Magisterially out of the Common Road as if he had got a Dutch Synod within him he falls into a Complication of Absurdities each of which is a most Intolerable Blunder For First The pretence of a High Court of Justice cannot properly be called a Novel Upstart Opinion since Buchanan and Knox and some English Apers of Swarez and Mariana had by their Dangerous Tenets and Pulpit Suggestions given ample and sufficient Encouragement to such Proceedings However That we may not insist upon Ceremony the main substantial part of the Tragedy was the Black Result of Deliberate Malice both Roman and Fanatick and was so far from being the Random Product of the Heat of War that the Design was carried on by Dark Conclave Clandestine Cabal Painful Preaching Long Prayers Frequent Fastings Godly Sorrow for the Sins of the Nation much Mortification Seeking of the Lord and all the Coolest Methods that can be thought on Secondly It was so far from being an Insect of a Days duration That as it was the most Prodigious Monster on this side Hell and never Equall'd by any Poet's Invention Enthusiastical Draughts of Antichrist or Melancholy Vision of a Pining and Despairing Lover so was it also Nurst with all Imaginable Tenderness and Care Christen'd by Milton and other Famous Apologists and borne about with great Ostentation and Triumph And whosoever shall peruse the Secret History propagated throughout the Nation the Works of Milton of ever Blessed Memory the Letters of Ludlow that pretious Orator in Christ Jesus I say whosoever shall peruse the Writings of these Legendary Scriblers and observe withal what kind Entertainment they have met with in the World amongst the well-affected the harmless and the hidden ones will readily conclude That there are Thousands among us who are so far from disowning that they secretly Applaud the Glorious and Triumphant Villany Thirdly I do readily grant That the detestable Sin of Flattery had a Finger in the Delusion which led to this Fatal Catastrophe and the Kingdom 's Funeral Nothing can be more plain if we do but open our Eyes and the Histories of those times together Indeed 't was such Nauseous Masking and Dawbing Flattery as was never Practic'd before 'T was an Incurvation of Mind a Degeneracy and Baseness of Soul beneath the wretchedness of those Creeping Spirits of Old that have Magnified the Spittle Spots and Freakles and Ador'd the Deformities of Persons in Authority and Power The Rabble were Deified out of their Wits by the Officious Fawning Demagogues of the Times and Carest into all the Absurdities of Speech and Action They were made the Divine Fountain of all Authority by a Godly Legerdemain and abus'd into such Vain and Glorious Idea's and Notions of themselves that they ran stark Mad at last with Zeal and Reformation By the help of Grace a Company of Weavers grew as Infallible and Definitive as a Synod or General

Council and a Zealous Brother by Vertue of his Saintship scorn'd to give the Wall to his Prince that was Unregenerate Now when such Fundamental Follies as these are entertain'd as Oracles I appeal to the Sense of Universal Mankind how is it possible for the most obliging Monarch to sit secure in his Throne or withstand the Shock of an Imperious Rabble Whatever Charms the Vitious Arts of Flattery may have to draw some Princes into an Affectation of Arbitrary Dominion 't is plain That the Soul of our Royal Martyr was as much above Flattery in the days of Prosperity as it was above Fear Malice and all other Temptations in times of his Solitude and Tryal Whatever Peccadillo's in Government lookt that way were no matter of Choice but Fatality and cannot be Construed his Crimes but his Misfortunes And surely to Rake into the Wounds of Afflicted Majesty is a Base and Cowardly Assault and somewhat more than Barbarous and Inhumane The Benign Temper of the Witch of Endor under more provoking Circumstances abhorr'd such Cruelty as this which is fit only for the Conscience of a Devil Fourthly That the Notion of Passive Obedience may sometimes prove Fatal in respect of Temporal Advantages is as Plain and True as any of Mr. Dod's Sayings And so Humility Patience Modesty and other Christian Vertues may prove a Bar to Preferment in Bad Times and the Evil Consequences do no more Conclude against the one than the other The Unkind Insult of a Tyrannical Prince doe's no more give Allowance to Subjects to shake off the Yoke than the Immusical Conversation of a Supercilious or Complaining Wife do's Licentiate a Bill of Divorce There is no State here so Propitious and Serene but it may sometimes be Overcast or Sullied with a Cloud There is no Condition on this side Heaven so Guarded and Secure but may be attended with Calamitous and Fatal Appendages And whensoever this happens by a just Nemesis or severer Providence an Absolute Resignation to the Divine Will becomes our Indispensible Duty and may prove our Glory and Consolation too if we are not antecedently wanting to our selves The Common Popular Orators of the Age that can harangue so fluently about the Tremendous Consequences of Passive Obedience do seldom seriously weigh or else studiously Conceal the Consequences of Rebellion which will be ever found to be more Durable and Mischievous This St. Paul well knew and therefore founded this Important and Inviolable Duty upon Reasons that are perpetual and unalterable For as he instructs us the Supream Magistrate is the Ordinance of God His Power is Ordain'd of God he is the Minister of the Great Immutable God and not of the Giddy and Capritious Multitude Now these Reasons hold good equally at all times subsist under all the Alterations of the World are the same now in England that they were at Rome heretofore and consequently the Duty must be so too 'T is the same yesterday to day and for ever I know the Patrons of Resistance tell us that this Obligation indeed does take Place and Sway wher 's sic volo sic jubeo is a Law and the Magistrates Will the Sole Political Standard and that Because Religion alone does not Authorize Resistance But when 't is once stamp't a Civil Right and is interwoven and mixt with the Polity of a Nation we may stand up in Defence of our Legal Rights and by Vertue of this we may Resist for our Religion This is the Ultimate Refuge of our State-Libertines All their various plausible Sophistry dwindles to this at last and this I think is soon reducible to nothing For 't is purely precarious nay includes a lamentable Mistake And that because this Evangelical Duty was directed to Persons that were vested with Civil Rights and suffer'd the most horrid Rapes and Usurpations The Imperial Prerogative was bounded by Law and became a Civil Establishment in the days of Augustus as Strabo and Dio report by the Concurrent Suffrage of the People and Senate and the Roman Government was Civilis non Tyrannica dominatio in the Days and Language of Tertullian The Roman Subjects were as great Asserters of their Liberties and look't as big upon the account of their Priviledges as the Free-born People of England How great their Immunities and yet what Illegal Invasions were made upon 'em How Unjust their Tortures and yet how Resign'd and Passive they were in their Persons even when the Valerian Law was in force to defend their Rights may be seen and read in the Complaining Apologists and Historians of those Ages but the particular Instances would swell this Discourse into too large and troublesome a Volume But alas Such Examples as these do rather Upbraid than instruct the Zealots of our Daies who Act and Demean themselves after such a rate as if the Christian's Portion were only in this Life and Religion were to be Modell'd according to Conveniencies of State There is nothing Heroical and Gallant left among us All that is Puissant and Brave has fled the World That Spirit of Christianity which Enlighten'd and Adorn'd the Primitive Ages is now degenerated into Empty Cant or loaded with Invectives Would you know what 's become of Christian Resignation Why with some 't is Heart-fixedness Nothingness and Broken-heartedness By others 't is called the Venom of the Dragon the Tare of the Wicked one Court-Flattery and the Fawning of the Serpent Or to speak in the Old Stile of Brain-less Mr. Vicars and Earless Mr. Prynn 't is Kixey Conformity Popish Pedlary Babilonish Trumpery and Devilish Malignancy against Christ In the last place Enter Liberty with all its Train of Artillery This has been a Famous Actor indeed upon the Stage of Humane Affairs It has been a Protection of all Sorts and Degrees of Criminals rand Debauchees It can Swear and Fight Plunder and Kill through all the Points of the Compass Backbiting Perjury and Libelling of Princes Sodomy Incest and all Unnatural Lusts have defended themselves with the Pompous Name of Liberty Liberty That can Transform a Jesuitical Band of Regicides and Conspirators into a Bright Constellation of Saints and Martyrs Liberty That can change the very best of Kings into the worst of Tyrants and give the blackest Villains an Apothesis Liberty That can Convert a Kingdom 's Wealth into the Possession of the Saints and make a Creeping Mendicant Cloak-Man an Heir or Executor at his Will and Pleasure In short There is no greater Slavery or Oppression in the World than a Lawless and Unbounded Liberty 'T was an affectation of this that made our First Parents Rebel against God and hath prompted others to Rebel against his Vicegerents 'T was a Sin of this Complexion that occasion'd the Unparallel'd Murder of our God-like Martyr for which our Land Mourns at this very Day and which seems to continue like the First Transgression a lasting Curse and Debt upon Posterity And thus Sir have I as briefly as I could animadverted upon some of those