Selected quad for the lemma: death_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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Oracles of Satan which against Scripture Primitive Example and Human Reason lead and perswade them Others Piously Lament their Princes Vexations and the Churches Reproach and danger in the midst of so many partly Malitiously contriving partly inconsiderate and Zeal Blind Adversaries whose infatuations they Pray may cease and the Smiles only of Fraternal Union in our dearest Mothers Bosome and Embraces may be Forreign Enemies Envy and the Worlds Discourse and Amazement CHAP. V. A Good Subject cannot but grievously Mourn and be Afflicted by his Princes Adversities THat one who feareth God and his Ordinance who desireth and endeavoureth the publick Welfare and seeth how inseperably God hath joyned the Good of the Higher Power and the Subjects for saith St. Paul He is the Minister of God to thee for good cannot but grievously mourn and be afflicted by his Princes Adversities is nothing to be admired by them that revere Conscience or truly mind Heaven For when he who is the Minister of God to us for good shall by the Devil or any of his Agents have the Channel of his Power through which our good must flow stop'd or disturbed this will be every Wise mans grief Fulness and Wantonness may at present make many in observant Pride having made divers to contemn those Blessings which came not answering their own mode and prescription may make them merry to observe it and help to promote it the Rapacity of such as are not contented with what the usual course of the stream brought them will assuredly by variety of Arts corrupt and trouble the Waters in hope of more plentiful Fishing and Prey But wise and good men lament these disorderly either hopes or joyes seeing apparent mischief reigning under the smiles of men of unstable minds The business of Kings is not to satisfy fluctuating humours but to give Contentment to their Subjects which cannot be otherwise administred then by Religion and Justice and practising the blessed Rules of Peace The concerns of Religion and Justice are for the most part within the publick view But I have shown that the Mistery of Peace is their peculiar Skill not to be pryed into any further than they are pleased to permit but that the Subjects Acquiescence is their best Strength and Safety And although this be true yet there are too commonly men Dissatisfied Ambitious and Malicious who will not be Happy who will be peeping medling with and Speaking evil of the things they understand not And sometimes it happeneth that these pernicious wretches go on with a Fatal Prosperity insomuch that as the Wise man speaks The City by which he meaneth the Kingdom or Commonwealth is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked Sometimes the commotions only threaten and having begun the works of ruine are not able to finish them God being pleased to put an hook into the Noses of the Insolent and to curb the madness of the people But in any of these Cases the calamity beginneth at the Head all the vitious Members blowes and reproaches are at that Although they are pretensively aimed at something else yet there they are designed to fall But then alas how sensible is every sound Member of all the Affronts Indignities and Sufferings which it sustaineth If it Ake and Grieve how they languish If it smart how speedily do they feel the pain And its Agonies put all on Trembling Every injury they feel each deprivation is their loss every reproach their shame Then they mourn and cry out as lamenting Jeremy For this our heart is faint for these things our eyes are dim Ordinary troubles observed in equals create commiseration in those who have not put off Humanity but Christians have a fellow feeling of their Brethrens afflictions by the greatness of their compassion bearing one anothers burthens as if suffering in the same Body and under the same Calamities If such be the Affection of common Neighbourhood which the general rules of Christian Charity and peradventure some peradventure no particular Obligations of dependance or communion have enlivened how boundless must those Passions and Griefs be which proceed from Charity enflamed by all that the free exercise of Religion Temporal Hopes and Dependencies and the enjoyments of a pleasant Fraternal Communion can administer By the Injuries and Disturbances of the Kings Peace the Publick Exercise of Religion is also interrupted for then when the wicked arise a man is hidden then what they celebrated before with open Joy and Thanksgiving Gods Children being scattered by the Persecutions of the Vngodly are forced mournfully to perform in Corners They that will not allow their Nursing Father quiet will afford the Pious Sons as little Tranquility And although no other molestation ensue from the impious Authors of the Kings Grief yet the remembrance by whom God hath hitherto conveyed those most Heavenly pleasures to his Servants upon Earth mingleth even those sweets with Gall when God's most Sacred Substitute is forc'd to drink of the Cup of Bitterness Each good man is desirous to undergo in his own person what he sustaineth and would gladly give his Life in exchange for the Afflictions of the King who is worth ten thousand of us David although a King was so concerned at the death of Abner a reconciled Enemy that all the People could not perswade him to eat because there was a Prince and a Great Man then fallen in Israel much more Good Subjects when they see Mischief designed against their Soveraign and carried on with Fury and Insolence do Fast and Mourn and when they do Eat it is the Bread of Afflictions and Tears And in the next place although they do not move Pious men with equal affection yet our Temporal Dependencies and Enjoyments considered help to add weight to our Grief when the Almighty's great Almoner by and under whom our Table was prepared our Head anointed and our Cup did run over shall be reduced to streights and anxieties When he also whose love and care of his People laboureth to secure to each man as far as humane scrutiny can give judgment his just rights and fruitions redeeming the Souls of the Poor from Deceit and Violence and breaking in pieces the Oppressor when he shall be under distress or in any danger by the Conspiracies of Cruel and Blood-thirsty men so great is the Horrour that surprizeth them that in the possession of what hath been preserved by past care there is no comfort no enjoyment Love cannot be ungrateful and Gratitude cannot be forgetful but the memory of each delight causeth a melting of hearts and as it were a dissolution of nature when the Principal Cause is threatned to be taken away or removed out of sight Neither is this Grief but in the least part proceeding from any fear of Sequestrations and losses of Estates and Fortunes by the violence offered to our Princes Peace Although there 's little need of Remembrancers to mind us how Religious and Loyal men were treated when Slaves were mounted and Princes