Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	king_n	lord_n	son_n	2,666	5	5.2816	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30293	A sermon preached before the late King James His Majesty at Greenwich the 19 of Iuly 1604 together with two letters in way of apology for his sermon : the one to the late King Iames His Majesty : the other to the Lords of His Majesties then Privie Councell / by John Burges ...	Burges, John, 1561?-1635.	1642 (1642)	Wing B5720; ESTC R313	21,287	32

the Subjects is the charge of Princes For to this end hath God ordained them witnesse the Apostle Rom. 13. He is the Minister of God for thy wealth for thy good if then doe well for thy comfort if thou doe ill for thy terrour and yet therein for thy good for it is as good for some to be terrified as for others to be comforted and indeed this is the proper greatnesse of Kings and Princes that God hath made them the great instruments of common good As if no blessing could be passed to his people but under the great seale of their office A wonderfull honour unto them For even as Ioseph in Aegypt was set over the corn so as he might have relieved or starved not the Egyptians onely but the Countries of the World neere unto it in the time of famine and this Ioseph was there for the second man in the Kingdome So Princes are the second to God himselfe in that God hath put into their hands to doe universall good unto their people A goodly honour which as it doth require great residence upon so great a charge so may it much encourage Christian Princes to doe their office the benefit whereof is so universall And if it might please Princes sometimes to looke about them and when they shall see a poore man labouring and toyling all day as a servant in base worke and all for the backe and belly or perhaps for a few poore children at home that cry for bread and then to think good Lord how this man toyles and all his worke is but for himselfe where I labour not as a servant but as a Lord in workes not base but honourable and not onely have the good of it to my selfe but am an universall good as a blessing sent of God to the whole Land Such a meditation shall greatly encourage them to seeke the good of their people I will seeke saith he that is use all diligence and endeavour If Princes seeke not the good of their Subjects it will not be found Great things will not be done without great labour if they seeke not things will be other wayes done then they would and which is the mischiefe other mens faults will be scored upon their accounts It is said of Galba that many things passed under his name of which he was innocent yet because he permitted them whom he ought to have brideled or was ignorant of that which he ought to have knowne he lost reputation and opened the way to his owne overthrow The fault was other mens the blame his If they seeke not they may be abused by such as I spake of before Flatterers and Misinformers such as will alwayes be about Princes to cast shadowes and stand in the light of their best Subjects as Ziba did to Mephibosheth unlesse Princes be wise as an Angell of God to finde out the hand of Ioab in the disguisings of the woman of Tekoah We have heard now what he will doe He will seeke their good but let us also consider Why For the house of the Lord What is that The Tabernacle the Temple being not built as yet But how was that Gods house doth the Lord dwell in houses made of hands or could he be contained in a Tent that filleth heaven and earth Surely no but because he did there reveale himselfe by Sacramentall representations as Princes sometimes marry by their pictures he is said to dwell there and that to be his house The thing is because of Gods true worship and service he will seeke their good Where I beseech you that it may be marked that this should be the speciall end of procuring the wealth of the people for the house of the Lord for the religion sake and the true worship of God Indeed this is the speciall thing to know God and feare God aright And if Princes provide not this for their Subjects peace and traffique and such like makes no better provision for them then is made for oxen in good pasture nay not so good for an oxe therein hath all he needs but a man without this is left unprovided in the farre greater part even in his soule And as Princes without this care provide not well for their people so they provide but ill for themselves for they can have no certaine assurance of their Subjects without it The great bond of Allegiance is an oath of the Lord What if a professed Atheist take an oath is hee bound He is not sui iuris What if he that is an Atheist in effect take an oath one I meane that denies the power of godlinesse that hath a dispensatory conscience and will make licences to his conscience as Roagues doe to themselves under hedges What if a man be a Papist that beleeves as he is bound by their rules to doe that the Pope hath power at his pleasure to dispence with an oath and to dissolve any bonds hath the Prince any assurance of such a Subject which hath his dependency upon the pleasure of a foraigne power It is true then that nothing can cast a sure knot upon the conscience of the Subject but the true knowledge and feare of God So as when Princes doe advance the good of Gods house they establish the good of their owne all in one I adde further in this point that which is to be observed in all the Kings of Israel and Iudah that their Stories begin with this observation as with a thing first worthy to be Chronicled how they dealt in matters of Religion Such a King and such a King and what did he He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord And such a King he walked in the wayes of Ieroboam the Sonne of Nebat which made Israel to sinne I spare to cite places but it is the generall observation of those Bookes of Kings and Chronicles as they that read them know yea farther it may be marked that as generally when Princes have forgotten to seeke the good of their Subjects to which they were ordained of God God hath surely plagued them himselfe perhaps so much the more severely because none may doe it but he and he will doe it throughly when he takes it in hand So yet specially hath God humbled Princes and even povred contempt upon them when they have contemned or forsaken the house of the Lord Of this the Scripture gives us examples as well in such as never advanced the house of God as in those that fell off in part or in whole As we may see in the stories of Iehoram Iehoas and even of Salomon whose fal I cannot name without trembling to thinke that such a man so wise that had spoken with God twice as it were familiarly I meane by vision should in his old dayes be seduced and fall to set up grose idolatry As for Iehoram he refused the house of the Lord God raised him up adversaries and after smote him with a disease in his bowels of which he died