Selected quad for the lemma: king_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
king_n	aaron_n	according_a	people_n	67	3	4.2826	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93715	A modest plea for an equal common-wealth against monarchy. In which the genuine nature and true interest of a free-state is briefly stated: its consistency with a national clergy, mercenary lawyers, and hereditary nobility examined; together with the expediency of an agrarian and rotation of offices asserted. Also, an apology for younger brothers, the restitution of gavil-kind, and relief of the poor. With a lift at tythes, and reformation of the lawes and universities. All accommodated to publick honour and justice, without injury to any mans propriety, and humbly tendered to the Parliament. By a lover of his country in order to the healing the divisions of the times.	Sprigg, William, fl. 1657.	1659 (1659)	Wing S5078; Thomason E999_11; ESTC R203651	64,567	117

visible thing I humbly submit to serious consideration And if I am herein mistaken for I pretend not to Infallibility I should be thankful to any God shall be pleased to make use of as instruments to better inform me for I would willingly see and know my errours But if it be here objected that the Primitive times were times of persecution in which the Church was as it were under Hatches and Christianity in its Infancy and the Professors thereof forc'd to hide themselves in holes of the Rocks and Caves of the earth But now having gain'd ground upon the world and being in better plight and since it is come up out of Egypt from the House of Bondage from under the pressures afflictions persecutions and burdens of its Heathenish Task-masters under which it formerly groan'd ought according to the example of the Israelites be adorn'd with the spoil of the Heathen c. I answer That as the Kingdom of God comes not with observation so it consists not in any outward pomp and splendor Its said the Kings Daughter or Spouse of Christ is All-glorious within and by how much the more ground Christianity hath gain'd upon the world by so much the less need doth it now stand of the Wisdom and Learning of men to commend and propagate it then when it was to encounter with so great opposition and such potent Antagonists as under the Heathen Emperor it met withal And if the truth did then under all those disadvantages not onely make good its ground but so much gain'd upon the World when it had few other Champions than poor Fisher-men and illiterate Mechanicks how much less need it now fear brow-beating when the power of God hath subdued so many Nations to the knowledg and obedience of his truth and hath made Princes of the earth bow unto the Scepter of his Son Some dawnings of these truths began in a great measure to break forth upon that little Assembly which by way of scorn is commonly called Praise God Bare bones Parliament of whom many are able to bear this testimony that they were the first Power of this Nation that did most visibly own Christ in the purity and simplicity of the Gospel But Christs appearance in their meekness much like his riding to Jerusalem on an Ass was so far from being received with Hosanna's that it was utterly rejected and refused by the Policy and wisdom of this Generation which was unworthy of so great a mercy and indeed not ripe for that purity and simplicity of Reformation that they by a Spirit of Faith seem'd strongly carried forth unto Which eminently appear'd in their sudden striking at the root of two such potent Factions as the National Clergy and the Lawyers which they would hardly have done had they only consulted with flesh and blood or not steered the Course of their Counsels by something beyond the Compass of humane prudence And whether the Nation is yet willing to part with their Calves they have so long worshipped I know not but I am sure it hath pleased God to give them a great discovery of the corruption pride ambition and flattery of this sort of men how willing they could be to reap their own profit though sown in and springing from the ruine of the Nations liberty and felicity how willingly they could sell their brethren slaves into the hands of Tyranny and Oppression to purchase to themselves Dominion and Lordship I would not be taken for an Enemy to either the Magistracy or true Ministry as knowing they are the Ordinance of God and the very light and eyes of the world only that which I am chiefly mov'd to witness against is that unnatural divorce and seperation that is at this day found between them in Christian Common-wealths which I account no less contrary to the Maxime of true policy than the mind of God and precedent of its first institution And however it came to pass that the Civil Magistrate was thus trapan'd to have the Keys of the Church taken from him to be thrust out of the Temple as an unholy thing to be prohibited from Ministring at the Altar and so the better part of the blessing wrested from him to whom if any more than other it doth chiefly appertain and this by a company of Hirelings I know not but I think I may be bold to say it was not so in the beginning For first these two Functions of Magistracy and Ministry are united in their source and origen viz. Christ the supreme Head of the Church who is both King Priest and Prophet Secondly the Moral Law which we call the ten Commandments and the Judicial Laws of Moses given by God setting aside some Idioms and properties of them peculiarly relating to the Jewish Nation are the Rule and Standard for Civil Governours to rule by and the Equity of them is written in mens hearts by Nature and renewed by Christ Which being the common rule of our Obedience both towards God and Man plead much against that distinction of its Administrators viz. that of one Law there should be two Ministers especially in so great a distinction if not opposition as is found at this day Thirdly The two Functions were united in the ancient Patriarchs who were Kings Priests and Prophets in their several Tribes and Families which continued during the first Ages and more innocent time of the worlds Infancy during the time of Paternal the first and best of all Governments when if ever was that Golden Age so much mention'd by our Poets a time when Tyranny and Oppression were unknown But after the liberty of the world was invaded by Tyranny and Esau sold his Birth-right for a mess of pottage the Power of the two Swords became parted and to render the purchase of Empire more cheap and easie the ambitious Candidates of Dominion were willing to compound and part stakes permitting others to domineer in things of conscience so they would hold the stirrup for their ambition to get into the saddle of Civil rule and Empire by which means the Sword and the Keys might come first to be parted and so found in several hands which hath been the cause of most of those wars and deluges of blood that have been poured forth since the beginning of the world to wit by the clashing of the two Powers Civil and Ecclesiastick Now whether after the extirpation of Paternal Government and institution of the Order of Priesthood in Aarons family and the Tribe of Levi both Swords were retained in the same hand during the time of the Judges as also after that through the Jews Apostacy from God Kings were anointed is disputable Though this is certain they were not altogether excluded but did sometimes administer in spirituals as well as temporals for we often find the good Kings reading and expounding the Law unto the people according to the Obligation laid upon them by the command of God as also consecrating the Temple and blessing the people things

we now unbowel and trace unto its original this Name for which there have of late appeared so many Advocates I presume it would be found of as ill complexion as the word Tyrant was accounted amongst the Greeks the english word King being but the abreviate of Cunning the usual epithite as all men know of Knaves and to speak the truth experience hath made good though never so great a Saint hath sate upon the Thone the Divel and a Bishop hath ever stept into the Office For I am not of that fond opinion that Kings are not capable in their private equalities of like virtues and qualifications with other men but that notwithstaanding their accomplishments how excellent how bright how orient soever are their personal virtues they stand on slippery places and their dignities their interests their parasites their flatterers are snares too great for them to retain their integrity and therefore that the Talent of Soveraign Power is too great too pretious to be intrusted or deposited in one mans hand though an Angel least so great a temptation should endanger his fall and make him appostate to a Divel That Kings are Gods scourges and given in wrath we have the testimonie of Scripture Nimrod was a great hunter a mighty man a great oppressor and the first King or Prince we read of the first that invaded the liberty of the World that first usurped Authority and presumed to exercise Dominion over his brethren the first that put a period to that Golden Age wherein no other then paternal Government was known But though thus nigh the morning of time God sent his scourge Nimrod as a just plague amongst the other Nations of the Earth yet the people of God the seed of Abraham the children of Israel were a long while after free a Free-State and enjoyd their native libertys till the time of Samuel when they rebelled and desired a King like the other Nations that they might be like the Heathen whom God had cast out which God construed no other then Apostacy and rejecting of him then rebellion and high treason against his own divine Majesty and said They have rejected me and then tells them what would be the issue fruit and product thereof They should give away their liberty and be subjected to an arbitrary power and become the slaves and vassals of their King who should take their sons and their daughters to make them his servants and send them forth to fight his battels that is to be the instruments of his pride and luxury and the champions of his malice and ambition And then he should destroy their propriety and take away their houses and their vineyards and give them to his servants Thus the Spirit of God gives the same description of a King as of what we call a Tyrant a Nero a Monster as if they were all one and it were essential to the nature of the office or dignity to be a Beast of prey a Leviathan an oppressor and devourer of the people which charracter hath been too easie to be read in the lives of most of the best Kings whose names are not taken off the file of memory Now as for those that would have a mock a counterfeit a limitted King a King and no King an empty Title a bare Name vox preterea nihil or I know not what They propose a remedy worse then the disease for to divide the Soveraignty is to lay a Scene of blood to sow the seed of a perpetual civil war and intail ruine on our selves and posterity what is divided cannot stand there will spring up perpetual jealousies fears and annimosities which will cause intrenchings on each others authority until the one have supplanted and overturned the other this is to institute a civil war Anarchy and confusion instead of a well ordered Common-wealth or Politie Having thus unmask'd the true nature of Monarchy which is no other then the more gentle or civil expression of Tyranny I shall endeavour to obviate some of the most plausible and strenuous arguments by whose strength and stabillity it 's endeavoured to be obtruded and our assents conciliated to the reception thereof One of the grand arguments whereby the betrayers of our Liberty endeavour to decoy us into the Iron Yoak we have so lately shaked off is taken from our long use and custome to draw therein which hath made tlavery become almost a second nature to us and therefore endeavour to scare us from our liberty as a novel and dangerous thing as if servitude were more natural to a Nation then freedom or any custome could utterly expunge nature I am sure the former cannot reflect with greater disgrace or more derogate from the honour of our Nation that we should be of so course a mettal so base an allay of so Spaniel-like-couchant slavish and degenerate a spirit then the other doth deviate from truth but the worthy Advocates of this cause measure truth by the wicked Standard of their base and corrupt designs as they take the altitude of all other mens spirits though never so brave and elevated by the Jacobs staff of their own pitiful crowching fawning humour It would waste more inke and paper then I am either willing or have leasure to bestow should I shew how much the State of our Nation is altered and into how great an unsuitableness we are of late travelled unto that Government this argument would plead prescription for But of what weight or truth it is of will easily appear to any that have taken notice of that passage of our modern History of the last Century which concerns the gallant Hero Sir Philip Sidney who though born in that most unlukie juncture of time for producing brave spirits when the Nation truckled under the Government of a woman was yet thought worthy of the Polish Crown and had an overture in order to his election thereto had not his jealous Mistress prevented if then one born under the influences of a femal Government and not of the highest ranke of Nobility was thought fit to sway a Scepter of how great blasphemy against the honour of our Nation may they be thought guilty who say the free born people of England after they have broke the more ancient Norman Yoke and the more modern of a latter c. are not fit to enjoy that liberty that hath been the price of so much blood and Treasure But should we conceed all the argument seems to begg that our necks ate used to the Yoke and we are become familiar to servitude shall we therefore willingly suffer our ears to be bored to the posts of our new Masters doors and become slaves for ever shall we court our bonds and glory in that which is our shame shall we never learn to be free and value liberty shall we never emancipate our selves and posterity but intaile thraledome and slavery on them also to all generations For so long as we draw in this Yoke our condition is the

pertaining to the Priestly Office But after the Captivity both Functions were visibly united in the persons of the High-priests who exercis'd the Regal as well as Sacerdotal Office till the coming of our Saviour And the light of this truth notwithstanding that night of Ignorance and Paganism that covered the face of almost all the known world was not altogether hid from the Heathen for during the Republique of the Romans the Priests of their Gods were chosen out of their chief Senators and after their Liberty was betrayed into an Empire the Flamen Dialis or High-priest of their chief god Jupiter was the same with the person of their Emperour Nor since the extirpation of Popery hath this Doctrine been altogether a stranger to the British Shoars Henry the 8th was by the universal consent of the reformed Clergy acknowledged under Christ the Supreme Head of the English Church together with the Title of Defender of the Faith which hath ever since been granted though perhaps out of modesty not always usurp'd to all the rest of our Kings and Princes but with what decorum especially when a child or woman was in possession of the Throne I leave others to judge But I remember to have read that when the Arch-Bishop as I take it Abbot had a charge put in against him his Judge was declared the King to whom he was referred to give an account as to his immediate supream in his own Order thus civil were those times unto their Magistrates whereas now they are prohibited with a procul ite profani under no less dreadful penalty then an Anathema to lay their unhallowed hands upon the Ark of God or to offer strange fire unto the Lord as they are pleased to tearm all Divine Service that is not offered in a Priests Censer Now the vestal fire of our Religion like that of old Rome must be preserved upon the Altar of the peoples heart by a peculiar Order of Priesthood least all the coals of devotion should otherwise be quenched amongst us as if it were impossible to retain the Ark of Gods presence or Religion without a National Clergy to be its Guardians as if the very Heavens of Christianity were in danger to fall did not the shoulders of the Clergy bear them up were not they the Atlas and Pillar whereby they are supported so much are these men willing to arrogate unto themselves But to return from this digression since in the head of all Government Christ and in the first Copie of it amongst the Patriarchs and in the time of the Maccabes and in the practise of many Nations both Christian and Heathen the Magistracy and Ministry were twisted together and exercised by one and the same I can see no good reason why they should be parted now either in the superiour or subordinate Ministers of Justice Kings have alwaies accounted the Sacerdotal dignity as one the fairest flowers in their Crown and why Republiques should set a lower value on it falls not within my apprehension they esteem'd it a thing most perilous and unsafe to trust any besides themselves with the absolute and total power of the Churches Keys since those that by that means get a place in the consciences of men and pretend to use the Sword of the Spirit have been always able upon the least provocation to arm themselves with greater terror and quench their thirst of revenge with deeper draughts of blood then those that were only armed with the Civil Sword it being no small advantage upon motions of private revenge to set so good a gloss upon their cause though never so bad as to be able to suborn the terrors of hell and conscience and so make use of the Millitia and Artillery of the Almighty in their own defence It is too too well known how apt the spirit of the Clergy is like that of Peters to call for fire from Heaven upon the heads of their enemies and to hold the people in a blind fear and expectation that their prayers shall be answered I am sure this State hath little reason to trust a provoked and inraged Clergy who not only look upon themselves as injured by the late sale of their best preferments and perpetual exclusion from a share and interest in the Legislative power being by Act of Parliament incapacitated of having a suffrage in that high and supream Court whereas they used and still expect to give Law to the rest of the Nation but also know themselves in little less then a premunire by driving a wiked bargain in which our Liberties were to have been exposed to sale as the price of redemption for their Episcopal Dignities Nor indeed is our State rich enough without reversing the late sales to purchase their good wills were they desirous so to do or ever bribing them to so great compliance as to become the States Oratours or to bark any thing but faction and sedition against the Common-wealth It is not a small thing will satiate the ambition of the English Clergy who many of them though taken from the meanest of the people usually so much forget their Orignal that they think the best preferments below their merits and capacities Now what prudence it can be for the State to keep up a discontented and inraged Clergy to be alwaies pelting from the Pulpit balls of Wild-fire among the people to kindle a second war and combustion pretending they are the coals of Gods Altar for warming the peoples hearts with zeal for his glory is a maxim of policy that moves not within the Sphere of my intelligence I should therefore humbly propose That the Tables of such Money-changers might be orverturned and these Buyers and Sellars that make Merchandize of Religion and turne the holy function of the Ministry or Sacerdotal Office into a mercenary Trade or profession into which the meanest of the people after seven years Apprentiship in the University commonly called sitting at the feet of Gamaliel are thrust for a piece of bread may at length be driven out of the Temple of God And since as we hope and believe the time is come in which we may expect the fulfilling of that glorious promise that Kings shall become nursing Fathers and our Princes nursing Mothers to the Church that our Magistrates that have been alwaies tearmed Pastores populi or Sheep-heards of people would resume the care of feeding Christs Flock with the sincere milk of the Word and no longer make use of journey-men and hirelings in Christs Vineyard or discharge the most considerable part of their duty towards God and his people by proxy or suffer themselves who are the heads and Elders of Gods Israel to be supplanted and beguiled of their birth-right and by consequence the blessing intailed upon it I presume no Christian Magistrate is so ill read in the duties of his place as in the least to doubt whether he be no less obliged to teach then govern the people God's providence hath placed him over I

Sword those knots upon mens judgements which they cannot minister effectual light to unty or resolve no as for such authorative teaching or enforcing Doctrines of faith by virtue of his civil power I am no Advocate for that but if he may not compel to faith may they not therefore instruct in faith as well as maners yea ought not every man as well as the Magistrate to imploy that Tallent if God hath given it him therefore least I should be thought either to lay too heavy a burthen upon the shoulders of the Magistrates or that it is the design of these proposals to open a door to Atheism Anarchy or confusion by throwing down the publick setled Ministry the supposed Pillars of Religion it s humbly offered to the serious consideration of those that are in Authority that if they shall think fit to hearken to the voyce of the people in taking away Tythes they would think of some way either out of Gleab Lands or other wayes of raising a Revenue for the maintenance and incouragement of a competent number of Itinerate Ministers to be assistant to the Magistrate in visiting such dark corners of the Land where poor souls sit as in the valley and shadow of Death and whose hearts God hath not yet moved to a voluntary and cheerful contribution to the necessities of such as being inabled by God and having the true stamp and seal of divine mission are willing to lay out their Tallents among them that so through the pious care of our Magistrates they may not be necessitated to labour altogether with their hands that are faithful Labourers in Gods Vineyard And by reason that the spirit of God is not limited but moves and blowes where he listeth and that we expect the powering forth of the spirit on all flesh that every one may be permitted to have the free exercise of their gifts without let or molestation until that time be come wherein we shall not need to teach every one his Neighbour and his brother saying Know the Lord but all shall know him from the highest to the lowest when the light of the moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun seven fold when the whole Land shall become a Goshian a Land of Light and the Lord shall be a Sun and a shield unto us As also that this liberty may be inviolably preserved that every people that are willing and desirous to associate themselves in brotherly love and the fear of God to build up one another in their most holy faith under any Way or Form whatsoever and to chuse their own Pastor either out of the gifted Laity or learned Clergy according as their judgements and consciences shall prompt them may have no interruption or be imposed upon by either the Magistrate or Itinerant Ministery they keeping themselves within the pales of the Law and bounds of moderation and moral honesty but may enjoy like Priviledges and protection with the rest of the free born people And that the Magistrates Itenerants would rather make it their business to rouse and awaken such poor souls as seem wraped up in a dangerous sleep of carnall security in a total neglect of all Christian Duties and Ordinances then to judge and censure the Religion Truth or sincerity of any making a profession of the Gospel to which they also witness by the innocency of an unblameable life and conversation And that the Magistrate would be exceeding zealous in punishing and discountenancing all manner of vice and prophanness where and in whomsoever it shall be discovered Of Tythes HAving thus with great freedom disburthened my thoughts concerning the function of the Ministers I shal now craveleave to speak aword or two to that Grand question now in debate concerning their maintenance by Tythes which having for a long time been look'd upon with an evil eye and that not only by such worldlings as are eaten up with Covetousness and into whose souls hath entered an eager thirst and pursuit after riches but also such whom in charity and conscience we are bound to believe are the people of God And since for the space of these many years they have from all parts of the Nation been complained of as a great burden and grievance and that they are become so fruitful an occasion or Law-suits and unchristian contentions to the inriching indeed of the Lawyers more then the Clergy I say considering these things together with the manner of their first introduction and estabishment by Law which seems to have been not altogether without wrong to the poor who both by the Law of God and their first concession were to share therein as also injury to the propriety of the first owners it being well known that Tithes were originally the voluntary benevolence of the people towards the relief of the poor together with the better supports of those that ministred in spirituals and were never impropriated to the Clergy to the exclusion of the poor till the darkness of Popery and superstition had ore-spread the face of the Earth it being then that Kings took upon them either out of devotion or being suborn'd by fear of the Popes Thunder to make these Concessions and Donations to the Church to the injury and disinheriting of the first proprietors Or if we consider the nature of the thing it selfe without respect to the unjustness of their original it being a thing that hath not the least countenance of reason that men should be compelled to pay not onely beyond the proportion of the tenth part of their substance but also of their labours that strangers should not onely reap where they have not sown but also inherit the sweat of the poor mans brows and that under the countenance of law contrary to all right and equity imposing a kind of soccage or slavish tenure by the plough upon the Nation whereby to hold their Lands on their Lords the Clergy I presume there will be found reason enough why the Parliament whose duty it is as the peoples stewards from whom as they received the Tallents of their power so ought to give an account of their stewardship and in all things lawful to obey their voyce as the voyce of God according to the command was sometime given Samuel though upon a worse occasion even then when they had rejected the Lord and desired a King should hearken unto this voyce of the good people of the Land in the abolishing of Tythes that are so great an eye sore and grievance to them which I humbly conceive might be best done for the advantage of the state and satisfaction of the people if the Parliament would please to grant their Lands might be totally discharg'd thereof at a reasonable rate and composition with the State which would not only give incouragement for a more cheerful payment of future taxes as the exigencies of affairs shall require but also supply the State with a vast sum of present moneys not onely