Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prince_n	law_n	power_n	sovereign_a	3,887	5	9.6410	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42490	Megaleia theou, Gods great demonstrations and demands of iustice, mercy, and humility set forth in a sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons, at their solemn fast, before their first sitting, April 30, 1660 / by John Gauden ...	Gauden, John, 1605-1662.	1660 (1660)	Wing G364; ESTC R16267	41,750	78

may be in which the consent and submission of the major part of men or long custom and settled constitutions in any Polity have the force of a law and are a rule of Politick Justice provided they bind to nothing immoral or irreligious Secondly Justice is considerable in the grand cistern and conservatory as the brazen Sea in the Sanctuary which served the Temple with water which is the Soveraign and Legislative power in every Society and Polity as it is circumscribed and contained in its proper bounds and peculiar limits this is the center of Order Vnity Justice and Peace politick this dividing and dashing against it self by Caesar and Pompey by Senate and People by King and Parliament by Emperors and Electors all Justice Order and Peace are destroyed the leak in this sinks all there must be a fixed Soveraignty under God to whose Justice and Power paramount all must submit according to law contestations in this run all things to confusions as our sad experience hath taught us Here either Prince or State or Peers or People may severally have the Soveraignty of Justice under several polities or forms of government or there may be such a temperament both as to legislation jurisdiction and execution of Laws by legal power as may best relieve people in their grievances by Parliamentary representatives and best judge of differences by sworn Judges and best execute all legal sentences and decrees by an eminent power in a Soveraign Prince King or Emperor which is best for all estates and such is that admirable constitution of Soveraign Majesty in England from which all Laws are enacted by which they are declared and with which they are justly and effectually executed inclusive of and adapted to all just interests of King Lords and Commons 3. Justice is considerable in the pipes and conduits of a●l subordinate Magistrates through which as blood in the veins it flows from the chief Justiciaries to the very petty Constables for the relief of all sorts of people which are as parts and members noble or less honorable of that Body Politick according as the Law doth adjudge to every one their due the measure of all is either recta ratio right Reason or sacra Scriptura the holy Scripture or lex terrae the law of the Land to which all are subjected by their consent He is just who looks to these who willingly submits to them and exactly observes them 1. There is a Justice due to God above all on which his commands in the first table are founded To own him love fear reverence adore admire obey trust in depend on joy in and enjoy him as the supreme good If I be a Father or Master where is my fear 2. There is a Justice due to our selves in chastity sanctity and sobriety to keep up the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Imperial power of Reason and Religion above that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Democracy and Anarchy of lusts and passions which fight and rebell against God and the soul here every vertue is a branch or fruit of Justice as every vice is an act or habit of Injustice {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as Clem. Alex. out of the Platonists observes every sinful and inordinate passion or action either comes short or shoots beyond or wide of Justice which consists in the medium as in a line or point indivisible 3. There is also a Justice to others void of all fraud or force of which as the Word of God in general and the Laws of every Polity in special so the dictates of every mans own reason his duly reformed and well composed conscience are domestick Dictators {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as Synesius observes God has made every mans rational Will the Monitor of justice hence men are a law in many things to themselves and their own thoughts do accuse or excuse their actions hence unjust men who act by fraud or force though never so successful yet are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} self-condemned and without any Apologie Prima est haec ultio quod se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur And Exemplo quodcunque malo committitur ipsi Displicet autori every unjust doer as he is his own greatest tempter and Traytor so he will be his own summoner accuser witness tormenter and Executioner sibi poena omnis inordinatus animus as St. Austin So Josephs brethren accuse themselves first as guilty of their brothers blood they must needs be sooner or later Magor-missabib terrors to themselves who are by their unjust dealings injurious to others and a terror to the land of the living by their oppressions But I have done with the Theory of Justice in its Source Derivations and Practiques I come now to the second main Postulate or demand of God mercy {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} misericordia or benignitas as it is variously rendred This is divinissimum in divinitate humanissimum in humanitate opus Mercy is the most orient gem in the Crown of Gods attributes and the greatest ornament as well as relief of humane nature It is the glory of God to pass by offences to pardon sins to temper the rigor of his Justice to supply defects to help infirmities and to save those sinners in his exceeding great mercy whom he might have condemned in the extremitie of his Justice By mercy God is sui victor seipso major as it were greater than himself and a conqueror of himself A denyer of himself and a sider with our interests All our hopes and happiness are founded upon and bound up in the mercy of God which is above all his works and ours In this fatherly benignity all our blessings are contained nor are we capable as St. Bernard speaks of any other merit than that is made up of Gods mercy which is perventive and plenary beyond desert and desire so ample that none is denyed it upon the tearmes offered Nor can it be ever exhausted for it indures for ever yea and it is peculiar to mankind above the Angels From this great pattern of Gods mercy to such worthless wretches as we are springs this demand and demonstration by which God requires us to be merciful as he our heavenly father is merciful to imitate God in this which is not more necessary so others than our selves since no man can shew so much mercy to others as he either wants or hath received himself Mercy in God is a perfection of goodness by which he moderates the severity of his Justice toward sinful mankind yet without any diminution or blemish of his Justice since it is by the suffering of Messias so satisfied that while mercy rejoyceth Justice hath no cause to complain Mercy in man is an affection by which he lays to heart the misery of another and is disposed

we are humiliati most humbled and debased by Gods providence it is very insutable then to boyl and swell with thoughts of repining and murmuring against God as if he injured us or treated us unworthy of us No here to be humble is to be silent and submisse to pray to prostrate at Gods feet to accept of the punishment and own it as from a Father who chastiseth us that we may not be condemned with the world humility disarms God and is a salve shield and cordial in the worst estate which is then best for us when we grow more humble as pride is a moth or curse that blasts all even the best we are injoy or do Alienating God from us and driving away his good Spirit when it finds us our own Gods and worshippers It is but just to leave us to the heaven of our own fancies and to be satisfied with our own delusions Third General Cui to whom God shews and of whom he requires these great lessons and duties Thee O man 1. To all mankind in general as creatures capable to know good and evil just and unjust and accordingly to chuse and do as they are directed from the inward dictates of right reason and those self-convincing principles which are within their own consciences 2. To thee O man more especially who enjoyest the light of Gods Word in the pale and bosom of the Church where the righteous precepts and merciful commands of God are more evidently set forth by laws repeated by examples multiplied by judgements and rewards proportioned to mens works none here can plead ignorance of duty both to God and man 3. Thee O man in thy particular station as occasion and power are put into thy hand whether Jew or Gentile great or small rich or poor Prince or Peasant Lords or Commons Priest or people no man is unconcerned in these Demonstrations to every one God says as Nathan did to David Thou art the man God requires Justice Mercy and Humility of thee O King who sittest on the throne of Majesty who art in Gods stead as his Vicegerent a kind of mortal Deity honored with the name and vested with the power of God and much more with the imitations of the divine excellencies of Justice and Mercy toward man as of Humility toward God Shalt thou reign because thou closest thy self in cedar and art compassed about with strong guards Did not thy Father do justice and mercy and then it was well with him He judged the cause of the poor and needy was not this to know me saith the Lord Thou even thou O King art to fear him who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords higher than the highest the terror of Tytants who pulleth Princes from their seat and poureth contempt upon all their glory thy surest policy is true piety and the best reason of State is this pure Religion and undefiled even to do Justice to love Mercy and walk humbly with that God by whom Kings raign Whose thrones are not to be established without Justice Mercy and Humility Nor can they be injured so much by any as by themselves their Pride before God like Nebuchadnezzars and Belshazzars will abase them and their oppression of their people will most oppress themselves at last Secondly Of Thee O wise man and mighty Counsellor who art esteemed by others and thy self as a great State Intelligence digging deep for counsels and wrapping up thy self in the darkness of thy cloudy projects and designs thou who gloriest in thy Oracular Policies as Achitophel and disdainest to be nonplust in thy wisdom or defeated in thy designs Of thee the Lord requires to give no counsel but such as is just nor to decree other than righteous decrees To agitate nothing in Councils of State and Parliaments by partiality faction and oppression to sinister ends and unjust interests either of Prince of people because the Lord sitteth among Senators and will cause a just decree without mercy to be executed upon those who either execute or decree unrighteous and cruel things Thirdly Of Thee O subordinate Iudge and Magistrate O great Lawyer and eloquent Pleader the Lord repuires not to turn Justice into gall and Judgement to wormwood not to judge for reward or pervert the cause of any either for fear or favour or for respect of persons not to make pleadings of Law to be as gins and snares to innocent simplicity by a fallacious sophistry and dilatory felony which robs the Clients purse as the bushes and brambles do the sheep of his fleece when he seeks and hopes for shelter from them No temporal advantage can counterpoise the detriment and danger which unjust and merciless actions bring upon those who willingly offend against the laws of the just and merciful God and thereby incur eternal damnation deserving to be beaten with many stripes because they know the will of God and do it not St. Bernards Motto to all judges is omnia judicata rejudicabuntur what comes short in mans measure or weight of Justice shall be made up by Gods eternal recompences 4. Of thee O Soldier O valiant and mighty man who hast power in thy hand to save or destroy to kill poor men and lay wast fenced Cities of thee God requires justice and mercy which must be the measures of War as well as of Peace there are jura belli laws of righteousness and moderation which God exacts in wars even defensive which seem the onely wars that can be just For sure to make war without some precedent or threatned injury must needs be very injurious Not might but right must be looked at where the lives of men are concerned justice is not to be measured by the length of thy sword or the strength of thy Arme or the number of thy Soldiers but by the Laws of God of Nations and of every polity The Justest war must not by passionate transports be carryed on to unjust exorbitant and cruel oppressions either to harmless and unarmed people or to immoderate demands in point of reveng and compensation much less to build ambitious Babels and covetous confiscations upon others ruines The Soldiers had their lesson of John Baptist what to do when they had so much grace as to ask the question they are not commanded to lay down their Armes but to do violence to no man c. 5. Of thee O man God requires Justice mercy and humility whose prosperity either in violent or injurious ways have made thee rich and great or who increasest thy estate by that which is not thine in equity and conscience who makest no scruple of Extortion rapine racking rents sacriledge oppression and rigorous extortions who hast built thy nest on high and feathered it with the spoils either of thy Neighbours and Tennants or of Church and State of the Crown and Crosier where cheap purchases witness to your faces and upbraid both byars and sellers of the injustice of