Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prayer_n	grace_n	spirit_n	supplication_n	3,488	5	11.0650	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91906	The royal nursing-father; discoursed in a sermon preach'd at the cathedral in Norwich, on the 29th of May [B]eing the day of his Majesties birth, and happy return to his kingdoms. By Charles Robotham, batchelour of divinity, in Norfolk.	Robotham, Charles, 1625 or 6-1700.	1680 (1680)	Wing R1729C; ESTC R229944	25,565	82

pertaesi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inde sequentis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grotius Kings and the Kingdoms Day the Day of His Return and Royal Restauration the Solemn Day that put a Blessed Period to the long and sad confusions of a Civil and Intestine War and to the manifold and multiplied calamities violences oppressings tossings and distractions of a Twelve-years unsettlement and usurpation O let the remembrance of those days Stobaei Serm. 42. verba Selini endear the enjoyment and celebration of this It was the Custom among the Persians says Brissonius that Brisson de Regno Persi●n L. 1. p. 27. when ever their King died they had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justitium quinque dierum a certain vacation or ceasing of all Laws Order and Government for five days together And all to this end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that they might be the more sensible of the benefit of a King and Laws returning after such a time of disorder and licentiousness God was pleased to exercise us of these Nations with a longer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sad and disorderly Vacation not of five days but of more than twice five years as the Israelites of old without a King without a Prince c. Hos 3. 4. Let us at least make this use of it as to prize the worth of these things by the past want of them and to value our returned Enjoyments by the experience of our former miseries But then again thirdly There is a third Consideration that adds to the Solemnity of this Day in reference to the Church as well as to the State i. e. As it was in a sence Natalitium Religionis the Birth-day of our Religion too i. e. of the publick reviving and restauration of it as to the publick Rights form and settlement of it The Wounds of the Church in our late confusions were as deep as those of the State and as many convulsions in the one as of distraction and dislocation in the other Nothing but In and Out was the Game plaid in Matters of Religion nothing acted upon the Stage but the strife or struggling of Rebeccaes Twins Jacob supplanting Esau the younger Religion catching at the heel of the elder and striving to come into its Place and Birth-right In a word as there was Jus vagum incertum in the State so there was little else but Fides menstrua in the Church one way of Government and Religion thrusting and shoving out the other nothing but Overturning overturning overturning till he came whose Right it was to be our Nursing-father But now blessed Ezek. 21. 27. be God there is some Fixation The Staves of Bands and of Beauty Zech. 11. 7. that were broken begin to piece up again The Wall and Tower of the Vineyard that were trodden down begin to rise again The Ark that had been either Captive or Ambulatory fetch'd home again and set up within its own proper Tabernacle In a word all things brought to such a degree of settlement that we may now once more say unto the Men of Rome that shall ask us Ecce Ecclesiam Loe this is our Church this the Doctrine of it this the Order of it this the Service and Liturgy of it All which since we owe it next under God to the Return of our Nursing-father this is that that should enhance the memory of this Day as bringing with it together with our Laws and Liberties the re-settlement and re-establishment of Religion too The finishing of the second Temple rebuilt by Herod the great says Josephus fell upon the Kings Birth-day which made both the Joy and Day the greater The like may be said of this our day Our Temple was concerned in the Mercy as well as our King the Ark and the Order of Levi as well as the Tribe and Scepter of Juda. And therefore where so many signal and eminent Causes meet as in one constellation it should render the Festivity of the Day the greater What remains then but that we summon up our Hearts and pour out our Souls before God in such Sacrifices of Joy Thankfulness and Prayer as may testifie our due resentment of so great a Mercy First Let 's Rejoyce in this Mercy Let 's meet the memory of this Day with the same thoughts relish and warm affections as we did the first and freshest News of it Remember we the greatness of our then miseries and dangers the smallness of our hopes the sadness of our fears and after all the seasonableness the suddenness the fullness and remarkableness of our deliverance And then if we be not blind we shall see reason to break forth with the Church and say The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad Psal 126. 3. And then secondly Let our Joy and Gladness proceed and beget Praise and Thankfulness in Word and Deed. God has ever shew'd a special care of this our Land and Nation We may say as St. Peter in the Vision unto Brightwood Monk of Glascowe Regnum Angliae Regnum Dei We have Polydor. L. 8. been Gods Hephzibah Gods Darling a Crown of Glory a Royal Diadem in the Hand of God a Isa 62. 3. 4. Land and Stage of Mercy especially of this Mercy and Benefit promised in the Text Kings to be our Nursing-fathers and Queens our Nursing-mothers A Happiness which we enjoyed with the first and earliest in the World The first King that ever embraced the Faith of Christ was a King in this Island His Name Lucius from light or brightness as if God in him meant to fulfil the Prophecy in the very sound of the Letter Isa 60. 3. The Gentiles shall come to the Light and Kings to the brightness of thy Rising The first Emperour that ever became Christian was by Birth a Brittain Constantine the great born at York The first Kingdom that cast off the Romish Yoke and usurpations and by Law setled the Reformation was this of England First in Henry the Eighth and so down successively excepting the bloody Parenthesis of the Marian days down to the present Monarch And blessed be the God of Heaven that the English Scepter is still joyned to the Faith of Christ the Royal Branch married to the Vine of Christ the Rose and Lillies of the Crown still subject to the Cross of Christ that we have still a Prince not only of the ancient Blood but of the true and ancient Faith one who has been tried in his time in the Fire of Affliction in the Forreign Furnace of Temptation and yet himself abides not only a firm Professour but a gracious Defender of the True Ancient Catholick and Apostolick Faith Which that he may so long continue let us in the third and Sacrificamus pro salute Imperatoris purâ prece Tertull. ad Scapulam last place add unto all the Sacrifice of our Prayers and Supplications at the Holy Table That God who has the Hearts of Kings in his Hands would so guide his Heart by the Princely Spirit of Grace and Wisdom that He may be now and ever still and more a Nursing-father to this our Israel that so He living and ruling in the fear of God and commanding for the Truth and Honour of God and procuring the good and well-fare of the Church of God after a long and happy Reign here upon Earth He may be finally possessed with a Crown of Glory and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God and of Heaven hereafter The END

Gods room and stead his Vice-gerents upon Earth And Gods for their Power and Heighth and Supremacy as having a Divine impress of Majesty and Sovereignty sealed and engraved upon their Persons For what is that that we call Majestas Principis the Majesty of a King or Prince I say What is it but something of Divinity something of God put upon a mortal Man And therefore the Christians of old as Vegetius relates in their Military Vegetins de re militari l. 2. c. 5. Oath were wont to be sworn without scruple Per Majestatem Imperatoris By the Majesty of the Emperour as being Sacrum quiddam Divinum something of God put upon Man and exalting him to an immediate nextness unto God Ye see then the height and eminency of the Persons yea but may some say Why is it that the Instance here runs in Kings only and single Persons were Monarchs only to be the Nursing Fathers to the Church of God To this I answer No doubt but under Kings are here included all other Secular Powers and Governours whatsoever yet Kings only are named and that for a double reason 1st In respect to the Event they being primogeniti Ecclesiae The first that began to exercise the power of Nursing-fathers The Prophecy it self in the execution of it was firstly yea and mostly fulfilled all along in Kings and Monarchs And then secondly In respect to the very Species of Government Kings are here named for divers reasons 1st As being the chiefest and a Principale per se positum stat pro caeteris Aristot polit l. 3. c. 11 12. principal of Governments as having in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absolutum imperium the entire and absolute command and power united and centered in one person and therefore the more effectual for the aid and assistance of the Church 2ly As being the most known the most famous usual and universal especially in those Eastern Nations according to that in Tacitus Suetum Regibus Orientem 3dly As being the most ancient c Arist Eth. l. 8. c. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Natutura commenta est Regem Sen. de clem l. 1. c. 19. natural and primitive of Governments Initio Reges Id primum in terris fuit Imperii nomen says Salust d Cited by Aug. de civ Dei l. 3. c. 10. To whom Vives adds Herodotus and Pliny in Catilin Kingship or single Empire was the first of Governments Omnes antiquae gentes regibus quondam paruere e Secunda in Catilinam Item de Legibus l. 3. says Tully Principio Rerum Gentium nationumque Imperium penes Reges erat says Justin f Cited also by Aug. de C. D. l 4. c. 6. l. 1. All Kindreds and Nations at the first were under Kings To which we may add that of the Philosopher Politic. 1. c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cities at the first were governed by Kings and so even to this day are Nations also Yea and if we look yet higher into the very Rise and Origine of Government as it is recorded in Scripture we shall find it was first vested in a single person Adam who was the Father of Mankind was by his Creation and for his time Monarch of Mankind according to that of Cedrenus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first Government in the Bertram de rep jud c. 2. p. 38. world was that of Fathers and Kingship is nothing else but the Apex or Supremacy of fatherly Power devolved into the hands of the present Monarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Philosopher who also plainly Ethic. l. 8. c. 12. draws the first pedigree of Monarchs from the Rights of Fathers as any may see in the first Chapter of his Politicae But enough of this first remarkable in the Text that is of the Persons or particularity of the Instance Kings or Princes I pass unto the second Considerable and that is The things that are foretold and spoken of these Persons They may be reduced to these following Heads 1. Their Call and Conversion 2. Their Piety and Devotion 3. Their Beneficial Influence upon the Church and assistance to it From all which follows in the last place the prosperity and enlargement of the Church by their means the thing designed and intended in the whole Contest First then ye have their Call and Conversion their conjunction with the Church and relation to the Church as Members intimated in the Possessive Tui Kings shall be Thy Nursing Fathers Thine first as Members and then as Fathers So that here are two things promised to the Church as touching Kings 1st That they shall be her Converts and then her Patrons first Embracers and Believers of the Gospel and then Maintainers and Promoters of the Gospel They shall become professores fidei and so defensores first Professers of the Faith and then Defenders To begin with the first Their Conversion The Church of Christ 't is a Nest for Eagles as well as Doves 'T is a Grove for Oaks and Cedars to grow in as well as Shrubs and Coppice That is 't is a Place and Receptacle for Kings and Caesars as well as meaner Persons for rich Abraham the mighty a Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitur Nicolao Damasceno Rex vocatur Justino Lib. 36. Vnctus Dei Psal 105. 15. says Grotius in Gen. 23. 12. Prince as he is called Gen. 23. 6. as well as poor Lazarus 'T is a Flock wherein the Lyons lie down with the Lambs in the same Fold the Prince with the People The Grace of God and the Faith of Christ and the Power of Conversion was never meant to be confined meerly to the Commonalty never to go higher The Apostle expresly declared the contrary from the beginning 1 Tim. 2. where he does enjoyn it as a Canon to all Christians That Prayers and Supplications and Thanksgivings be made for all Men Verse 1. and for Kings in particular Verse 2. Giving this as the Ground and reason of the duty Verse 4. because God will have all Men to be saved and to come to the Knowledge of the Truth that is doubtless at the least Men of all sorts and ranks Kings as well as others This the Apostle then knew and knew it by the Writings of the Prophets 'T was a thing foretold long before That Kings should see and arise and Princes should worship the holy one of Israel Isa 49. 7. That the Gentiles should come to the Churches light and Kings to the brightness of her rising Isa 60. 3. And so Psalm 22. 30. Pingues terrae adorabunt all they that be fat upon Earth shall eat and worship And Psalm 47. and the last Verse The Princes of the People are gathered unto the People of the God of Abraham so 't is in the Hebrew For the Shields of the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mighty upon Earth belong unto God that is they shall joyn themselves to the God and People