Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	city_n	great_a	king_n	11,168	5	3.7047	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39295	The magistrates obligation to punish vice a sermon preach'd before the right worshipful the mayor, aldermen, sheriff, &c. of the town and county of Newcastle upon Tyne, at the parish Church of St. Nicholas, October 8, 1699, upon the election of the mayor / by Nathanael Ellison ...	Ellison, Nathanael, 1656 or 7-1721.	1700 (1700)	Wing E610; ESTC R37317	18,338	44

or as some think when he had but a prospect of it So early do you find him resolving * Psal 101. to govern first himself and then his Court and then his whole Kingdom with such care and caution that good Men might secure themselves of his Favour and the wicked be afraid of feeling the Severity of his Displeasure I will behave my self wisely in a perfect way I will walk within my House with a perfect Heart I will not know a wicked Person He that walks in a perfect way shall serve me he that works Deceit shall not dwell in my House And as the Conclusion of all says he I will destroy all the Wicked of the Land that I may cut off all wicked Doers from the City of the Lord. And if the Seventy fifth Psalm were Composed by the same Pious King you have him there renewing the like pious Resolution and that at a time when there was the greatest Occasion and Necessity for interposing his Royal Authority when the Earth i. e. the Kingdom of Juda and its Inhabitants threatned its Ruine by an universal Dissolution of Manners when wicked Men lift up their Horn on high and spake with a stiff neck i. e. when they bad open defiance to all Divine and Humane Laws then even then did the Holy Psalmist interpose with heroick Courage and Magnanimity every way becoming a King in such a desperate Juncture then did he resolve to cut off all the Horns i. e. all the Power of the Wicked and Prophane and that all the Horns of the Righteous should be exalted But whether David were the Author of that Psalm or no 't is not to be doubted but that the 72 Psalm was of his own Composing the Title of which is a Psalm for Solomon and was made by David as 't is supposed * 1 King 1. when Nathan the Prophet and Zadok the Priest by David's own Command and while he was yet living took Solomon and set him upon his Throne In which Psalm he prays That God would give his Son Solomon his Judgments and his Righteousness that so he might judge his People with Righteousness and the Poor with Judgment that he might keep the simple Folk by their Right defend the Children of the Poor and punish the Wrong-doer But there are two Examples more behind which very well deserve your Consideration and which indeed in strictness should have been mention'd before if we had regarded the Age they lived in The one is Job Job 1. 3. the other is Moses Job is called the Greatest i. e. one of the greatest Men in all the East in all probability he was a King and if his Dominions were not so large yet his Power might be as great and absolute as any Monarchs at this day 'T is evident he was a Man in great Power and Authority by what we read Chap. 29. 7 c. But he was not contented with the bare Ostentation and Pageantry of Greatness but he shew'd his Greatness in Acts of Goodness in the highest Instances of Justice and Mercy I delivered says he ver 12 c. the Poor that cryed from Oppression c. I put on Righteousness and it clothed me my Judgment was as a Robe and a Diadem By which it appears he took not so great Pride in the Ornaments of State which he wore as in the impartial Execution of Justice upon Offenders and in breaking the Jaws of the Wicked Num. 12. 3. Moses had the Character of being the meekest Man upon the face of the Earth and yet notwithstanding his unparallel'd Meekness we read of his exerting very severe Acts of Justice when he saw God's Honour Prostituted and his sacred Laws violated and trampled on witness * Exod. 32. Numb 25. the Idolatry of the Golden Calf and that of Baal-Peor These four Illustrious Examples I have mentioned are very well worthy your Imitation none need to be asham'd to be taught their Duty by such Persons who had so establish'd a Reputation both for Greatness and Goodness But 't is high time to advance to my Second General To consider the dismal ill Consequence that naturally attends the Carelesness Negligence and Remisness of Magistrates The growth of Sin and Wickedness is thereby promoted and encourag'd the guilt of all which is laid at their Door whose Neglect occasion'd it for thus the wise Man tells us in my Text Because sentence c. Ill Men are emboldned and encourag'd by this Impunity and as long as they meet with (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. No Contradiction nor (b) Haud prompta fit oppositio Arab. Opposition no Check nor Controll from Men of Power and Authority they go on to do ill with (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sym. a fearless Heart nay 't is d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. fully persuaded setled and confirm'd in their Wickedness They grow daring and obstinate and at last obdurate in their Sins This is a melancholy Truth that has obtained too much Credit in all Ages * Plutarch Rom. Apopth Cato the Elder was wont to say That he wou'd rather be unthankful for a good Deed than not punish a bad one which as 't is an Argument of the ill Opinion he had of Ingratitude so also of the Necessity there was of Vindictive Justice Nay he thought soft and easie Magistrates intolerable in a Government and not only so but that even their suffering Death was a small Compensation for the Damage and Injury the Publick sustain'd through their Negligence and Remisness Such a violent Propensity to sin there is in all of us that all Nations have thought it absolutely necessary to restrain it by the severest Punishments To this purpose is that Observation of a Heathen Philosopher That tho' several Nations have differ'd in the several Punishments they appointed for the Violation of Religion and good Laws yet they were all agreed in affixing some Punishment or other upon such Violation But the severest Penal Laws are but a dead Letter without Execution and signifie no more than if they had never been made at all To have such Laws made and not executed is an Argument of Weakness either in the Government or Governours that they cannot or dare not Punish and ill Men take occasion thence to strengthen themselves in their Wickedness when Laws or Magistrates want Power or Courage to restrain them And no wonder indeed for if even the vigorous Execution of Laws is little enough and too little effectually to prevent or wholly to suppress and obstruct the growth of Impiety what Progress must it of necessity make if all Restraint and Opposition be removed out of the way When the Flood Gates are once broken down 't is a Miracle if an Inundation does not follow David was of invincible Courage and was resolv'd as you have heard to do what in him lay to put an early stop to the growth of Debauchery and Profaneness in his Reign

may be a Fault and our good Nature may be Censured by some as Softness and Folly And indeed that is but a Foolish † Salutaris severitas vincit inanem speciem Clementiae Cicer. Ep. 1. ad Brutum Pity which is indulged so far as to Invalidate the salutary Execution of Penal Laws which are absolutely necessary to the support of Religion and Government and the Preservation of good Manners For what Government can there be without Laws And what avail the best Laws without Sanctions to enforce them And what signifie Sanctions without due Execution This is a Truth so plain and self-evident that my Text supposes it and takes it for granted and which supercedes any laborious Proof were there not a bold sort of People | Socin Explicat cap. 5. S. Matth. v. 42. Id. in Resp ad Jacob. Palaeolog part 1. c. 3. part 2. §. 26. part 3. c. 2. Lud. Woltzogen Appendix ad Commentar in Matth. 5. 38. ap Fratr Polon Socinians and Anabaptists started up among us who endeavour what they can to subvert all Government by Disowning and Impugning this Power and Authority of Magistrates and by Crying down their whole Office as Unlawful and Antichristian But no wonder that these Men clamour so bitterly against the Rights and Jurisdiction of Magistrates since it has been the Practice as 't is also the Interest of all well-Constituted Governments severaly to Prosecute them as the greatest Disturbers of Peace and the very Bane and Pest of Societies But if * Non potest ullam Authoritatem habere sententia ubi qui Damnandus est Damnat Senec. Malefactors and Criminals at the Bar be allow'd to Plead for themselves no doubt but they will except against the Jurisdiction of the Court and the Authority of the Judges 'T is no great wonder that these Parties detract so much from the Authority of Inferiour Magistrates since One of them have disown'd the Authority of their Great Lord and Redeemer by denying his Divinity and Satisfaction and the Other and indeed both of them have disowned the most Sacred Authority of the very Sacraments themselves which must be owned by all good Men to be most undoubtedly of Divine and most Solemn Institution How will the very Heathens rise up against these Men one day and condemn them 'T was Plato's Opinion That neither God nor Man would say it was any Injustice to Punish Criminals And indeed who can say it Not the Heathens none of their Authors having ever Pleaded in all their Writings against this Authority of Magistrates How much less can any Christian say it when God has so fully Invested them with this Power and Authority 1. Before the Law 2. Under the Law 3. Under the Gospel 1. We have very imperfect Memoirs in Scripture of what Courts of Judicature God erected or what Penalties were Appointed for Punishing Malefactors before the Flood but immediately after the Flood we find God setling a standing Magistracy and intrusting them with a Power of Inflicting capital Punishments upon Offenders | Gen. 9. 6. Whoso sheddeth Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed I shall not trouble you with the various Translations which the Learn'd * De Jur. Nat. Gent. l. 1. c. 5. l. 4. c. 1. Id. de Synedr l. 1. c. 5. Mr. Selden has Collated with a great deal of Accuracy the most Natural Sense of the Place seems to be That he that took away the Life of Another was to lose his Own and to be Sentenc'd to Death by the Judge or Magistrate And so I find both the Targums render it God seems before this to have reserv'd this Royalty of Life and Death to himself as appears probable by the Story of Cain whom he would not suffer any Man to kill though he very well deserv'd it for slaying his Brother But here he seems to settle a standing Magistracy and to invest them with a Power of Life and Death upon such Occasions And although Death seems to be restrained here to the Case of Murder yet I will not doubt in the least but that the like Sentence extended also to other hainous Enormities as seems very plausible from Thamar's being Sentenced to be Burnt for playing the Harlot Gen. 38. 24. which Sentence if it were decreed by Juda proceeded not in all probability from any Arbitrary Power that so near a Relation would have assumed to himself or if it were pronounc'd by any other Magistrate it argues that there was * Vid. Calvin Grot. in Loc. Seld. Uxor Hebr. l. 3. c. 12. some peculiar Custom or Law to punish Adultery as well as Murder with Death And if Thamar was a Priest's Daughter as some of the Hebrew Doctors imagine this was the very same Punishment that was afterwards inflicted by the Law of Moses in the like Case Lev. 21. 9. But however that may be certain 't is that 2. Under the Mosaic Oeconomy Death was the ordinary Punishment that was appointed both for Murder and Adultery besides several lesser Punishments that Magistrates were empower'd and oblig'd to inflict for lesser Crimes 'T is needless to reckon up all the Penal Laws of this Nature which occur in the Mosaic Dispensation 't is enough that God himself gave it in Commission to the Judges Deut. 25. 1. to Justifie the Righteous and to Condemn the Wicked to Condemn them both to greater and lesser Punishments according to the greatness of their Demerits And hence it is that we Read of pecuniary Mulcts and Forfeitures as Imprisonment Stocks Scourging c. as well as of several Capital Punishments as Stoning Burning Beheading and Strangling Instances of all which might be produc'd were there any need of it let it be enough to Remark That these Penal Laws were so highly reasonable that Artaxerxes tho' a Heathen King thought fit to confirm them to the Jews Ezra 7. 25 26. when Ezra return'd to Jerusalem after the Captivity These Penal Laws I say that Heathen King confirm'd to them as the Result of God's Wisdom and Ezra owns this to be the Effect of God's Spirit upon his Royal Heart Thou Ezra says Artaxerxes after the Wisdom of thy God set Magistrates and Judges which may judge all the People And whosever will not do the Law of thy God and the Law of the King let Judgment be executed speedily upon him whether it be unto Death or to Banishment or to Confiscation of Goods or Imprisonment And Ezra's Answer to this Gracious Concession was Blessed be the Lord God of our Fathers who hath put such a thing as this into the King's Heart 3. But that which much more concerns Christians is That the like Sovereignty was invested in Magistrates even under the Dispensation of the Gospel which is the most gentle and merciful Dispensation that ever appear'd in the World And although this Power was lodg'd in such ill Hands at first as exerted it to the very great Prejudice of

Christianity and in perfect opposition to the Interest and Propagation of the Gospel and as far as in them lay to its utter Ruin and Extirpation yet 't is very remarkable That neither our Blessed Saviour nor his Apostles make the least Exception no not against the Arbitrary and Unjust Exercise of this Power and Jurisdiction even of Heathen Magistrates but when they were suffering most unjustly under them even then do they own and assert their Power to be of Divine Institution and Establishment Thus when our Blessed Redeemer was most unjustly brought upon His Tryal and Pilate seem'd to Triumph and value himself upon the Power he had to Crucifie and Release him our Blessed Saviour is so far from detracting from this Authority he claim'd that he runs it up to the Divine Original and tells him He could have no such Power of Life and Death as he boasted of except it were given him from above John 19. 10 11. The word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which cannot be interpreted of bare Divine Permission but of Express Commission And so also St Paul when he Appeals unto Caesar's Judgment Seat he owns it as a Court where he ought to be Judged Acts 25. 10. Nay both St. Peter and St. Paul make this Power of Heathen Emperors not only God 's own Establishment but they lay it as the very Foundation and Corner-stone of Christian Subjection and Obedience 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. Submit says St. Peter for the Lord's sake whether unto the King as Supreme or unto subordinate Governours that are sent by him i. e. that are sent by God and then follows the Commission they are sent upon They are sent by him says he for the Punishment of evil Doers as well as for the Praise of them that do well To the like purpose St. Paul in that known place of the 13 th Chapter to the Romans where he calls the Higher Powers God's Ministers no less than three times in two Verses Rom. 13. 4 6. and when he calls them so 't is with reference to that Power they were intrusted with of punishing Offenders and executing Wrath upon those that do Evil. 'T is observable That tho' the Emperours these Apostles lived under were some of the very Worst or Heathens tho' they nail'd the one Apostle to the Cross and struck off the Head of the other yet these very Apostles tell us that God made them His Ministers in the Execution of Justice and entrusted them with the Sovereign Power of the Sword Now if God under the Gospel put a Sword into the Hands of Heathen Emperours who made so ill use of it as to oppose the Preaching and Establishment of Christianity and to persecute and kill the Apostles and Primitive Christians we can't think that he design'd to wrest it out of the Hands of Christian Princes when there is the same necessity and occasion of Correcting Sin and when they may manage it more for the Honour and Glory of God and the Promotion of Piety No if the Heathens abuse of their Power did not vacate their Commission how much more should the prudent and sober the regular and impartial Administration of this Power confirm and establish Christian Magistrates in the use and exercise of their Authority I am sure so it has been understood in all Christian States every one of them claiming the like Power of punishing Offenders as has been exercised by former Kings There 's little question then to be made but that all Supreme and Subordinate Magistrates have a Power to coerce and punish Criminals 'T is well if those that are in Authority would consider that this Power of theirs is not so much a Privilege and Royalty which they may use at Pleasure as 't is a Duty incumbent upon them which they are oblig'd to under the severest Penalties 'T is a Trust which they are oblig'd to Execute and Discharge as they will answer it at the Supreme Tribunal of the great Judge of all the World who will call them to a very severe and particular Account for their Neglect Mismanagement and Male-administration Supreme Magistrates are God's Ministers and 't is expected that such should be Faithful to their Master that they should Assert Vindicate and Promote his Honour in encouraging Vertue and in discountenancing and punishing Vice as Great as the Greatest of them are they are but Ministers and tho' their Greatness exempts them from any Punishment here yet they must one Day give an account and a very severe one too hereafter for the abuse of their Ministery according to that of Solomon Eccles 5. 8. If thou seest the Oppression of the Poor and violent Perverting of Judgment and Justice marvel not at the matter says he for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they that will call them to an account for it Or as 't is Wisd 6. 3 c. Power is given you of the Lord and Sovereignty from the Highest who shall try your Works and search out your Counsels and because being Ministers of his Kingdom you have not judged aright nor kept the Law nor walked after the Counsel of God horribly and speedily shall he come upon you For a sharp Judgment shall be to them that be in high Places for Mercy will soon pardon the meanest but mighty Men shall be mightily tormented and a sore Tryal shall come upon them If Supreme Powers then be thus accountable how much more those that are Inferiour and Subordinate They are accountable to God their King and their Country for the Discharge of that Trust reposed in them and if they neglect to execute it with an honest consciencious Integrity if they Pervert Corrupt or Obstruct Justice they become guilty not only of Betraying their Trust but which is yet of more dismal Aggravation they are guilty of the Violation of that sacred Oath which they have taken to discharge it Matth. 25. If he that hid his Lord's Talent tho' it were but a single Talent was called to a strict account for it and sentenc'd to outer Darkness as a wicked slothful and unprofitable Servant what Name will be bad enough to affix to those that have wasted abused or mispent the many Talents they have been intrusted with And what Place in the Infernal Lake can be found hot enough to receive such unjust and unfaithful Servants 'T was God's express Charge and Direction to David 2 Sam. 23. 3. That he that Rules over Men must be just ruling in the Fear of God Which Divine Admonition holy David seems to have had constantly in his Eye and to have made his Rule and Model of Government insomuch that you have this glorious Character transmitted of him that while he Reign'd over Israel He executed Judgment and Justice unto all his People 2 Sam. 8. 15. And indeed you have him laying a good Foundation for this Character as soon as ever he came to the Throne