Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	authority_n	king_n	law_n	1,296	5	4.5981	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53965	A sermon preached on the anniversary of that most execrable murder of K. Charles the first royal martyr by Edward Pelling ...	Pelling, Edward, d. 1718.	1682 (1682)	Wing P1090; ESTC R20742	15,297	44

Left which is the constant Prayer of My Lord Your Grace's most Humble Faithful and Affectionate Servant and Chaplain Edw. Pelling LAM 5. 16. The Crown is fallen from our Head wo unto us that we have sinned A Crown fallen Had the Prophet gon on and spake of the fall of a Crowned Head too we might have guest that by his Prophetical Spirit he had pointed as far as Forty Eight But to shed Bloud Royal as if it differed not from the Bloud of a Vulgar Person and to cut off the Neck even of a Neighbour Prince as if he had not been anointed with Oyl was lookt upon as an act too Barbarous to be done by those very Barbarians who thought it just and safe to put out the Eyes of a Conquer'd Monarch For if we look into the History of those Times to which my Text doth relate we shall find that no less than Five Kings of the Jews had been successively Captivated by the Assyrians and though Most of them if not All had been Unfaithfull to the King of Babylon and Rebelled against him after they became his Servants yet Sentence of of Death past not on any One of them but Deposing Imprisonment and Fetters were the usual Punishment of their Perfidiousness only Zedekiah who was the Last of the Five and had sworn Fealty to the King of Babylon and had given greater Provocations than the rest was handled more severely than the rest But though his incensed Enemies slew his Sons before his face yet the Judgment given against Him was only the taking away of his Eye-sight the Destruction and Killing of Kings being looked upon as a Crime of a most Horrid and Detestable Nature even by men who were in a state of Brutality and even then when they were armed with Power transported with Rage thirsty of Revenge and flesht with Victory However to rid himself of a necessity of Forcing the Jews into Subjection at every turn thus Nebuchadnezzar resolves to make very short work with them and in order thereunto he Sacks Jerusalem sets Fire on the Temple maketh Spoil of all the costly Furniture and Utensils thereof burneth down the Houses within the City demolishes the Walls destroys their whole State and Government and carries the King and People and all away into a strange Land leaving only some of the poorer Sort to be Vine-dressers and Husbandmen as we read at large 2 Kings 25. Now it was This Sad and most Dolesome time which the Prophet pointed unto in this Book of his Lamentations especially in this part of it where he grieved at This as the Epitome and Sum total of all their Evils that the Crown was fallen from their Head And in the whole Verse we may observe First The Calamity so lamented here by the Prophet It was the falling of the Crown Secondly The Cause of this Evil It was the Peoples Sins Thirdly That woful Condition those Plagues and Punishments which were Consequent hereunto Wo unto us for we have Sinned 1. Let us look a little first into the Calamity it self The Crown is fallen from our Head And for the opening of the Prophets Sense we are to know that by the Crown some understand the Joy of God's People Diadems and Coronets being wont formerly to be used in some places at Solemn times of Festivity Others interpret it of the Glory of the Jewish Nation which Glory consisted in this that hitherto they had been peculiarly favoured and honoured by God above all other Nations in the World Others will have it to be meant in a more strict Sense of their Temple and Priesthood in the possession whereof the Jews had all along Boasted and Prided themselves to a most high degree Others again do and as I conceive with better Reason understand by the falling of the Crown from their Head the loss of their Kingdom and establisht Government and the stripping of their Princes from that State Power Greatness and Royalty whereof the Crown was an Emblem and Argument For this was the Complement of their Misery and the reason of all their other Evils was resolved into This that their King's Throne was now quite cast down to the Ground and hereupon by necessary Consequence their Religion was overthrown too the Glory of Israel was departed the Liberties of the People were utterly lost their Laws cashier'd Church and State Both were now gon to wrack all Joy was vanisht their Harps were hung up upon the Willows in a strange Land and they themselves sat weeping by the Rivers of Babylon while they thought of their dear and now ruinated Sion Briefly whatever did help and concur to make them Desolate and Miserable all was owing next unto their Sins to the Ruin of that Monarchy and Government wherewith hitherto they had been Blest for so many Ages The Crown is fallen from our Head wo unto us that we have Sinned The Calamity then was Judahs but the Sin too was Englands on this day when Men not only with their eyes Saw but with their own hands Caused the downfall of the best of Kings and the Funeral of the best of Monarchies till God by a Miraculous hand gave it a Resurrection out of that Grave wherein it had been buried by those Cursed and Domestick Babylonians who said Down with it down with it even to the ground We do not wonder at the ruin of Zedekiah nor was the ruining of him a Crime on Nebuchadnezzar's part for even Absolute Princes are Coordinate and stand upon the same Level and if upon sufficient Provocations the one happens to gain his Neighbours Crown the fact is Just by right of Conquest But if the one be Subordinate to the other which was clearly the case of Zedekiah the Recovery of the Crown is in the Supreme Prince an act of Justice and the Punishment of an inferiour Prince who abjureth his Fealty is by all Nations allowed to be a Righteous act of Vengeance Upon this account the Jews may be said to have been rather an Vnhappy People for though they vvere vvicked in This respect that their Sins Occasioned their Misfortune yet they vvere not they durst not be vvicked in that respect vvherein the People of this Land Sinned who rose up against their own Sovereign and Natural Lord in whose Person the Supreme Power was vested by God Himself they themselves first pull'd off their Princes Crown from his Head then proceeded to bow down the Prince himself upon the Scaffold and at last dared to strike off his Head from his Shoulders So that though the falling of the Crown was to the Jews a Calamity yet being contrived here by Men vvho whether Severally or Joyntly considered vvere but Subjects being attempted by Resistance against the Authority and Person of the King vvho vvas the Only Supreme and being in the end brought about by most Unjustifiable Methods such as vvere contrary to all Laws Divine and Human contrary to so many Voluntary Protestations and Repeated Oaths and contrary to that

Natural duty of Allegiance vvhich every born Subject oweth his Prince vvhether he entreth into the Oath of God or no the falling of This Crown is justly accounted to the People of this Land to have been Rebellion Treason Murther and the Highest act of Parricide vvhich taking it with all its Circumstances perhaps was ever done upon a meer Man since the World was first Created And though there may be some who will not take up the Confession in the Text that they have Sinned either in laying the Crowned Head Low or in abjuring the interest of the Crown to the Worlds end but Lament for this only that the Imperial Diadem is not a falling the Second time yet the Sin of this day calleth aloud for Sincere Repentance from All and even from Vs vvho were neither Actors in it nor Abetters of it nor perhaps could have known it but by the hearing of the Ear. And to the end that our Repentance may express it self by Amendment of Life and may be attended with Watchfulness and Caution lest we fall under the same Guilt and smart under the same Calamity again that we may not be Wicked and Miserable hereafter 't is necessary that with the Prophet we reflect upon those Sins which formerly brought us under Both Wo unto us that we have Sinned 2. Now many Sins there were which cryed for Vengeance against this Nation but of these some were more Vocal and Clamorous than others and did more immediately and directly tend to the casting down of the Crown First The great Vnthankfulness of Men for so many Mercies It was that which so incensed God against the Jews that he delivered their Kings and Them into the hands of the Babylonians because he had carried them from the Womb and they delighted in Frowardness because he had nourished and brought them up and they turned Rebels because Jeshurun had been high fed and became wanton And this was our very case before the Civil Wars brake out God had blest us so in every Respect that nothing but our own Follies could have made us an Unhappy People In the Church we had a Faith that was free from all Corruption and Error Sacraments that were Duly and Entirely administred a Liturgy that was consonant to the Word of God a Government that had been transmitted to us by the whole Catholick Church from its first Ages Ceremonies that were but few and those warranted by the general Practice of the Primitive Christians In the State we had a Prosperous and Long Peace Laws that were a Terror to all Wickedness and a Security from all Oppression as much of Liberty as was consistent with Obedience and more than any other parts of the World did Enjoy a Monarchy that was both our Defence and Honour and to Crown all our Felicities a Prince whose Example was more Operative than his Laws whose Endowments as he was a Man whose Faith and Piety as he was a Christian whose Clemency Wisdom and other admirable Vertues as he was a King were enough to render him the Love of Mankind as well as a Pattern to all Princes and an Honour to the whole World In a word vvhatever Blessings were necessary to make us either a Religious or a Wealthy or a Potent or a Free Nation vve had our Portion of them in abundance and were Miserable only in this respect that as Now so Then we had not the Sense to See nor the Hearts to Value our own Felicities Hence it vvas that men vvere Peevish vvithout Reason and Troublesome vvithout End Hence it vvas that the Same Pretences vvhich are so Rife in this Age vvere so Fatal in that Our Regular Ministry vvas then traduced as if it were Popishly affected our Bishops as if they were an Vseless and Wicked Order our Doctrines as if they had been minted at Rome our Service Book as if it vvere a Translation of the Mass our Rites as if they vvere the Reliques of Popery and our vvhole Church as if it vvere given to Idolatry and Superstition And from the same base Principle of Ingratitude it was that the World was filled with Insinuations and Complaints as if the Liberties of the People were in Danger as if Religion was going out of the Land and Arbitrary Power coming in as if his Majesties Counsellors were Evil as if the Introduction of Popery and Tyranny were the Design and the King himself were consenting to the Plot. All which Vnjust and Malicious Suggestions though they were no other than the Arts of Vnthankful Spirits and though the World hath been since abundantly convinced of the Falshood thereof yet they were taken for granted then and so did naturally help forward the downfall of the Crown and the Sin of This day Secondly another way whereby Men Sinned in those days was by Publishing the Doctrines and Entertaining the wicked Principles of the Jesuites For seeing Religion and the Laws of the Land had provided Securities for the King's Life Person Power and Greatness they found no way left them to Prosecute their Evil and Bloudy Intentions but by poysoning the Kingdom with such Foreign Principles as these that the King 's whole Power is derived from the People that He is Such a Trustee and Servant as may be called to Account before the face of the World that if they Judge him to have been Vnfaithfull to his Trust they may Lawfully Depose him that if he be a Tyrant whereof they are the Judges they may and are bound to Kill him that it lyeth in them to Set up what form of Government they please and that the Crown is wholly at their disposal Many other Doctrins there are which bear affinity with These and which of Late have served to fill up a Leviathan a Plato Redivivus a Just and Modest Answer so called c. besides whole Loads of Intelligences and other Scandalous Writings wherewith the World is even now pester'd as if it were not enough to have intoxicated the People to have undone a Nation and to have pulled down the Crown Once For these were the Principles upon which those Delicate Protestants those Tender and Thin-skin'd Consciences those goodly Loyal and Dutiful Subjects acted when they fought against their King when they Hunted him upon the Mountains when they gave him a Crown of Thorns for a Diadem of Gold when they translated his Chair of State out of the Parliament-house into Westminster-hall and at his Palace erected him a Scaffold for a Throne and made him a Glorious Martyr whom they so often Swore they would make a Glorious King And yet these Principles were once the Proper Creed of the Jesuites and it was ever call'd Jesuitism till by going abroad to seek its Fortunes it changed its Name and came to be called the Purity and Power of Religion the Evangel of Christ the Faith of God's Kirk and the Law of the Holy Common-wealth Originally these Doctrines were taught by Mariana by Bellarmine by Azorius and divers Jesuites more