Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	great_a	life_n	write_v	5,211	5	5.2860	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61173	A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons at St. Margarets Westminster, January 30th 1677/8 by Thomas Sprat ...	Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713.	1678 (1678)	Wing S5053; ESTC R16476	17,653	54

Whole World was a Spectator too Calmly a Spectator of the Last Part of His Life whilst Wicked Men Furiously Pursu'd His Death furiously for it was one time or other to be the Cause of their own Destruction whilst Good Men Pray'd for Him but could not otherwise help Him nay His Enemies Pray'd too and boldly Bely'd Heaven in Presuming that His Murther was the Return of their Prayers But Heaven was on His side God supported Him the Angels Minister'd to Him the Devils Tempted Him in vain His Adversaries too Effectually And I beseech you Where can there be found a Worthier or more plentiful Subject for our Admiration than that so Great a King who had Sway'd those Scepters that are the Balance of all Europe should come down from His High Estate by so many easie and deliberate Degrees should put off all the Ornaments of a just Soveraignty to bear all the Indignities of His own Subjects Tyranny with so little Reluctancy with so much Contentment should prepare Himself still for thicker and greater Afflictions by a Glorious Disdain and yet a Pious Improvement of all the former should have a Mind so Compassionate of others Misfortunes even of His Enemies Offences and yet so Serene amidst His own Dangers should have a greater Lustre and Majesty of Countenance as Moses had and that not when he was performing an Act of Government and Administring the Law but when He was dying by the Unjust Pretence of His having broken His own Laws For any Man to bear Miseries well has been ever counted so great an Honor that some of the Antient Heathens have too extravagantly thought it equall'd Men to God Himself who is not capable of Misery That sayes one of them is truely Divine to have the Frailties of a Man the Security of a God It is indeed by all true Philosophy esteem'd to proceed from the greatest strength of Nature by all true Christianity from the highest degree of Grace Can any other Virtue so cleerly manifest of what strong and firm and invulnerable a temper the heart is made Passive Courage is perform'd within in the Soul it self when Men are forlorn oppress'd despis'd not so well as only forsaken when they have no Flatterers few Comforters scarce any but Enemies near them And therefore this Grace before was generally more found in the Poor Low and Obscure part of the World 't was commonly excluded from Princes Courts by a Thousand Delights and by the Pompous Dreams of Human Greatness 'T was almost enough Patience before in Great Men to be only more moderate and reserv'd in their Pleasures From the Greatest and Best of Kings before Men us'd rather to take Examples how to Lead Armies to Command Nations to Distribute Justice to cherish their Good Subjects to subdue the Rebellious These were the Arts of Empire 'T was from the severe Practices of the Cottage the Cell and the Gown and they usually fetch'd Instructions and Examples how to submit to hard Fate to endure Mildly the Rigors of a stronger Power to contemn the Melancholy and Terrors of a Prison to pardon or to bear the Affronts of mean Conquerors and by such hands to Dye a violent Death with Decence What Praises then can be worthy of that King who so much excell'd the upper and the lower part of Mankind in their different perfections who out-did the Upper in Righteousness and Mercy the Lower in Meekness and Long-suffering How shall we be able to Extol His Goodness who could 〈◊〉 readily lay down His own Life for His Subjects when it has been often esteem'd goodness enough in other Sovereigns to spare sometimes the Lives of some of their Subjects that have transgrest their Commands What Title shall we bestow on that Magnanimous Courage which could endure all the Barbarous forms of such a Tryal and Execution the Insolence of the Ignominious Judges the Horror of the Disguis'd Executioners nay even pardon the Word for He Pardon'd the Thing the Spitle of His Inhuman Persecutors could suffer this with as much unconcern'd easiness as if it had been only the Pomp and Solemnity of His Coronation To Witness all this I might challenge the Testimony of those very Servants that were by His Adversaries impos'd on Him in His Restraints of whom many were Converted by His Sufferings who had been His most bitter Enemies whilst He flourish'd I might Allege His Speeches His Conferences His Personal Treaties His Conversation His Immortal Writings all Compos d in His Greatest Distresses some near the very sight of the Scaffold They tell us that when Caesar Swam for His Life amidst His Enemies He had such Presence of Mind as to Swim with one hand and in the other to hold up His own Book and save it from perishing But when the King was incompass'd with far greater inevitable dangers He not only preserv'd but Wrote that Books to which amongst all the Writings of Princes I know none equal but Caesar's if His none Superior but Davids and Solomons But What need we seek farther for a Proof of His Royal Courage and Christian Patience than to the very Men that Conquer'd Him And that not only now when they have so many Reasons to Condemn their own Cruelty towards Him and of all Reasons two most unanswerable ones I wish they would think so His Own Pardoning them and His Sons Confirming His Mercy But we may even venture to appeal to their Opinions and Censures of Him when He was in His Lowest they in their Highest most Insulting Condition His Enemies had Him long amongst them long they had all His nearest Concernments open to their discovery His Chambers His Cabinets His very Body and Heart The last part of His Life they forc'd Him to pass in a Camp or Prison or Hall or Scaffold There were no secret conveyances of a Palace no officious silence of Servants there all His behaviour was exposed to the view of all and chiefly to those that mortally hated Him And what the least indecence or weakness did they discerne What the Greatest Resolution and Heroick Spirit did they not see in Him Did at any time any word or even murmur of discontent come from Him for which He ought to have been jealous of His Enemies presence Nay rather might He not in all have wish'd for their most exact and severe observation For what did or could they observe What in all His Discourses but great Truth oppress'd and yet Gloriously Prevailing What in all His private Actions but the most unaffected Modesty and Devotion What in all His Publick but Unmoveable Constancy and the most invincible thing in this World an Humble Conscience well-assured How many various distracting thoughts of Hatred and Disdain of natural Tenderness and Affection not to speak of Fear or desire of Life might often then have assaulted a weaker Heart in any one of all the dismal degrees of His Passion was it not then enough to Discompose and Shake a Mind less Establish'd or then when