Selected quad for the lemma: majesty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
majesty_n	letter_n	lord_n	precedent_n	3,537	5	11.1764	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69022	The baiting of the Popes bull. Or an vnmasking of the mystery of iniquity, folded vp in a most pernitious breeue or bull, sent from the Pope lately into England, to cawse a rent therein, for his reentry With an advertisement to the Kings seduced subiects. By H.B.	Burton, Henry, 1578-1648.; Catholic Church. Pope (1623-1644 : Urban VIII)	1627 (1627)	STC 4137.3; ESTC S106960	93,251	154

least I should offer both violence and wrong with my vnskilfull pensil to limme out more largely this most beautifull and well proportioned Image of a Princes vertuous mynd But I dare say which I referre to the best judgement of Your Majestie ablest to judge of Your owne noble sayings it is an exquisite Aphorisme or Abstract of that divine Rule prescribed to Kings by the Lord and Iudge of Kings It shall be when the King sitteth vpon the throne of his Kingdome that he shall write him h copy of this Law in a Booke out of that which is before the Priests and Leuites and it shall bee with him and he shall read therein all the dayes of his life that hee may learne to serue the Lord his God to keepe all the words of this Law and these Statutes to doe them that his heart be not lift vp aboue his brethren and that hee turne not aside from the Commandement to the right hand or to the left to the end that he may prolong his dayes in his Kingdome hee and his children in the midst of Israell Now what is the summe of all this but Honesty is the best Pollicy From this Root to wit Honesty the heathen deriued all the branches of vertue As those foure Cardinall vertues Prudence Justice Fortitude and Temperance the subiect of those three bookes of Offices Tully draweth from the force and nature of Honestie as himselfe expresseth And those foure also Iethro Moses father in law in his direction to his Sonne requireth to bee in all Magistrates saying Thou shalt prouide out of all the people men of Courage such as feare God men of truth and hating Couetousnesse Still the summe totall is Honestie is the best Policy Thus neede wee goe no further then Your Maiesty to learne the rule of all good policy whereof Honestie is the ground as containing all duties both to God and man in Prince or people Thus haue I though slenderly for the which I most humbly craue Your Maiesties generall pardon discharged my faithfull dutie in discovering so great a danger towards Your Maiestie It pertaines to the wisdome of Your Maiestie to provide speedy meanes for the prevention that Your Kingdomes may not become a prey to the enemie nor Your sacred Person exposed to the perill of beeing forsaken by Your owne Subiects whom the Pope instigateth by the authority of his Bull and by the incessant industrie of his Iesuites to stand closse to his Holinesse against Your Maiestie when occasion serveth His Breeue also mentioneth what anxious prayers the Church of Rome now maketh for hir Catholicke Sonnes in England There is some waighty cause in hand sure Wee poore Ministers hope that Your Maiestie will bee pleased to call a generall Fast to frustrate all Romes prayers Wee haue all fared the better for the last publicke Fast which Your Maiestie proclaimed for the averting of vnseasonable weather against the last harvest And it is memorable that on the same day wherein the Fast was kept generally over all England began the heavens to cleare vp their clowdy countenance and so continued till they had brought vs in a plentifull harvest in stead of a feared famine Not that wee place any vertue in a Fast but because a Fast with humble prayer preuaileth much with God not onely as being commanded by him and hauing a promise annexed but for the necessity of it to bee joyned with true repentance and reformation not onely of mens manners and all raigning sinnes publicke and private but also of the worship of God being purged from all the pollutions of Idolatry and superstition which are an abomination in Gods sight and especially a clearing the Coast of all Romish Iesuites and Idolatrous Priests whose religion is treason against Your Majesty and God himselfe When the good King Hezechiah had received the blasphemous letter of Senacherib King of Assyria he went into the Temple of the Lord humbled himselfe and prayed spreading the Letter for the Lord to read and revenge all the blasphemies contained in it both against God and the King perswading his subjects to defection from him But loe here a letter sent into England from the King of the spirituall Babylon full of most impious blasphemies against Your Maiesty most Antichristianly vsurping a power over Your subiects charging them to disavowe their fidelity vnto Your Maiesty shall not this iustly provoke Your Maiesty with Hezechiah to go into the Lords Temple and there publickly intreat the Lord to take revenge on such blasphemies and to turne the mischiefe which Rome and her confederates now intend and machinate against Your Person and Crowne vpon their owne head as Ezechias obtained of the Lord yea Your Maiestie thus doing all Gods faithfull Ministers as so many Esayes to King Ezechiah as so many Azariahs to King Asa dare promise Your Maiestie both certaine victory ouer Your enemies and a constant peace with prosperity while You constantly follow the worthy examples of those religious Kings of Juda which grace the Lord giue vnto Your Maiestie in abundance Amen Your Maiesties most loyall subiect though vnworthy servant HENRY BVRTON TO THE LORD DVKE OF BVCKINGHAM his Grace Right Honorable THE Dutifull zeale I beare to the safety of my dread Soueraigne and deare Country inforceth mee otherwise loth to put my finger into the fire in the second place to sollicite Your Grace to bee the more carefull to preuent the danger When King Saul and Abner with the whole guard were in a dead sleepe so that Dauid had the opportunity to take away the Kings speare and Pot of water by him onely to testifie his fidelity to the King hee called alowd to Abner and awakening him said Art not thou a valiant man and who is like to thee in Israell wherefore hast thou not kept thy Lord the King surely yee are worthy to dye c. But neither can I say so altogether nor neede I cry so loud to your Grace vnlesse these many businesses which will scarce suffer you to sleepe so soundly as did Abner will neither suffer such a dwarfe as my selfe easily to bee heard But speaking for the King I hope I shall not be denied Audience Nor are they good subiects persecuted as Dauid of whom the King is in danger but such as though they haue small cause to complaine of persecution yet are instigated to deny vnto their Soueraigne that loyalty and Allegiance which all true subiects owe vnto their lawfull Prince Doth not your Grace erect your most earnest attention to this But who dare thus instigate the Kings subiects against him No lesse then the Pope and that by a Breeue or Bull lately sent ouer into England wherein he straitly chargeth his Catholique Sonnes as hee termes them vpon no termes to take the Oath of fidelity to the King inciting and animating them as against their Enemy as the Breeue can testify Nor had I I confesse beene thus bold to meddle in such a matter if

of God secure themselues from all Devills and Devills incarnate as the bloudy Iesuites His Promise is which is specially made to Christian Princes Hee hath giuen his Angells charge ouer thee and they shall keepe thee in all thy wayes which In all thy wayes teacheth vs how necessary it is to haue the wisdome of the Serpent combined with the Doues simplicity in the vse of due meanes to prevent dangers For if Iesuiticall malice will not spare the lowly shrubb how much lesse the lofty Cedar If a poore subiect may bee the obiect of Popish revenge for standing for the truth much more a noble King the Defender of the Faith Which hath possessed me with the greater iealousie and feare for your Maiesties safety Nor is it a Panicke or causelesse feare If I did but dreame of any danger towards Your Maiesty how should I feare it waking But here is neither Dreame nor Diuination but plaine demonstration of imminent if not rather present danger such as is worthy to possesse Your Naiestie with a most prudent and vigilant feare such as the learned Bishop in his Tortura wished to abound in your royall Father of famous memory and wee no lesse in Your Maiestie The cause I say of all is the Popes Bull or Breeue even now perswading and straightly charging his Catholique Sonnes in Enland as hee calls them vpon no termes to take the Oath of Allegiance to Your Maiestie as being not their King but their enemie Such Breeues never come but they betoken some notable mischiefe not farre off Like the Coote which flying to the shore crying prognosticates a sharpe storme at hand or as the Owle which being seene in the City portends destruction to it or as a prodigious Comete presaging the fatall periods of Princes or States specially where they exercise theyr maliguant influence Yet howsoeuer these may proue vncertaine as being Signes only but no causes of future euents yet the Popes Bull being not only a Signe but a cawse conducing to and producing mischiefe and that even exprofesso ought not slightly to be regarded Omne malum à Breuibus Breuia a Pontifice sayde the foresayd Bishop vpon the same occasion A Breeue was sent from the Pope to prepare the way for the Spanish Inuasion in 88. Another for the Gunpowder Treason Remarkable instances sufficeent if any to admonish England euer to looke for a terrible thunderclap vpon such a flash of Lightning Nor euer came Bull from Rome more cunningly couched and fuller of subtill insinuations then this as being the expresse Image and Modell of the Mistery of iniquity Formerly in the darker night of ignorāce the Owle of Rome durst fly and flutter about seasing plūme vpon the prey but here where the Gospell shineth she is faine to winke with her eyes and to retire her selfe in the reserued corners of her ambiguous and twi-light Equiuocations Such is the curious frame of this Breeue being such as Paul 5 said of his written post l●ngam et grauem deliberasionem de omnibus quae in illis continentur adhibitam No doubt but this Beere was a long time a licking into this forme it hath But the summe is the Breeue containeth nothing but matter of high Treason against Your Maiesty inciting Your Subiectes to defection from You and erecting their hopes for Trophees and triumphs which the Pope plentifully promiseth to them I haue adventured the weakest of ten thousand to vnty this Gordian knot vnmasking the mystery thereof in a convenient brevety but all is of no force without Your Maiesties sword like that of Alexanders to hew it in sunder The lesuits at this present like Sampsons foxes with their firebrands are busy kindling combustion every where in your Kingdom vsing this Breeue as Bellowes to blow to the fier A man would thinke that seeing the foxes woules are so rife the dogges should be muzzled and tied vp Or when theeues are so briefe and bold the sword of Iustice shouldly rusting in the sheath But howsoeuer wee are sure Your Maiesty hath not beene wanting in publishing Proclamation vpon Proclamation to banish them the Land Only they learne thereby to walke the more invisible hoping by Gyges his Ring to obtaine their desire And when they are taken no ligatures of lawes can long hold them but Proteus like they haue their evasions Something is the reason that our Lawes haue lost their sting and become Drones and the Iesuites proue the waspes to robb vs of our honey It was wittily sayd of Polydor Virgil Regnum Angliae Regnum Dei his meaning was because none seemed to take care of England but God And true it is his diuine Prouidence hath from time to time beene a miraculous preseruer of it Yet some meanes must be vsed In 88 that Masculine Queene slept not At the Powder-plot Your royall Father by commanding dililigent search prevented the blow God gaue a happy successe to both And no doubt but he will be the same God to defend Your Majesty blessing Your pious zeale in the rooting out of his and Your enemies whose prime Article of their faith is treason to Kingdomes and States Salomon sayth How shall a man carry fire in his bosome and not bee burned What should I need to propouud to Your Majesty the examples of those noble and religious Kings of Iuda who setting themselues resolutely to reforme the decayed and disordered state of Gods worshippe proued through Gods speciall blessing miraculously victorious ouer all their enemies Your Majestie knowes them of a childe which imitating now being a Man and a King God shall bee with You as hee was with them and You with him King Ahashuerus setting apart but one night to more sad contemplations and reading ouer the Chronicles a worthy Precedent for a prince sometimes so to breake his sleepe how was it a meanes to cawse the light of Gods people to breake forth from obscure darknesse Wee poore swaines espying the storme comming to whom should we runne but to our Pilot Or being sicke but to the Phisitian Vnder God Your Maiesty is the great Pilot of this Iland which like a goodly shipperides at Anchor in the midst of the Sea now in danger to be tossed with terrible stormes which the leakes will hardly brooke yf they bee not the sooner stopt You are vnder God the great Phisitian who onely can cure as the Kings euill so the inveterate Gangrene of this body whereof Your Maiesty is the head Giue vs leaue dread Soveraigne in our extremity of danger to cry out to Your Maiesty for helpe We know as God hath dignified You with a Diademe so he hath qualified Your Maiesty with most excellent Princely indowments For instance vouschsafe leaue to Your poore old servant to remember a most Princely speach vsed often by Your Highnesse HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY A Motto for a King and worthy to be ingraven in the lasting Monuments of Your Kingly Actes even with Your owne royall hands I may not presume