Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prince_n	ordinance_n	power_n	resist_v	2,543	5	10.0817	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15700	An armoure of proufe very profitable, as well for princes, noble men; and gentlemen, as all other in authoritie, shewing the firme fortresse of defence, and hauen of rest in these troublesome times and perilous dayes. Made by Iohn VVoolton minister of the Gospell.	Woolton, John, 1535?-1594.	1576 (1576)	STC 25974; ESTC S106615	49,980	114

Morall guyding his subiectes according to the same And as this ordinance is of God so hath it byn of most auntient tyme For in Noha his dayes immediatly after the floud when God gaue leaue to mortall men to kill liuing creatures for their foode and sustentation he forbad them to eate beastes being yet aliue in their bloud as Wolues deuour lambes and as the Griphon renteth doues least men abusing such livertie might in tyme being fleshed as it wer in crueltie kill one another and shead mannes bloud The liuing Lorde requireth a kinde of pittie and mercy towards creatures albeit vnreasonable not to deale with them as with insensible things wherein Cato Censorius is iustly reprehended of Plutarch who without all humanitie solde his bondmen now olde and altogither wasted in his seruice God therefore thundereth a seuere intermination or threatning saying whoso sheadeth mannes bloud by man shall his bloud be shead For in the Image of God hath he made man In which wordes of the Lord we see the institution of a Magistrate to the end he should succour and defend the poore and innocent from iniurie and vyolence and correct and punish the transgressours for their faults and offences In tymes paste Kings and rulers therefore cōsidering not only the antiquitie but also the dignitie of their calling to be of God haue in their stiles vsed this Phrase N. By the grace of God King. Acknowledging that all preeminencye of Maiestie aucthoritie and power of Emperours Kings Princes and of all other Magistrates and officers whatsoeuer are giuen and conferred by God himselfe Which cogitation is verye profitable not onlie to represse the insolencie and hautinesse of mynde which commonly accompanieth dignitie and authoritie being very pernitious in all regiment but also much furthereth to the better administration and discharge of their calling in the feare of god For as they see and vnderstand themselues appointed in their places and degrees by God euen so are they seriously put in mynd that they must yelde an accompte of all their doings to him and therefore they will endeuour with all their power strength to obey and serue him with all feare and reuerence according to the saying of the King and Prophet Be wise now therefore yee Kings be learned ye iudges of the earth Serue the Lord in feare and reioyce in trembling Now as we learne the worthinesse of this calling by the light of Gods worde so may we see the same in the Gentiles folowing the light of most woorthie titles and names as the Persians who both called their Kings Gods and lying prostrate before them signified an opynion of their royall myndes and maiestie Afterward the Grecians excelling in all science and learning called their Princes Pastors or feeders of the people with which name excellent Homere hath celebrated woorthie Agamemnon Mynander aptly and briefly calleth a King The liuely Image of God. Albeit that saying seemeth to bee drawen out of Hesiodus an auntient Poet who numbred noble vertouns Princes amongst the Gods attributing vnto them after this life a kinde of diuine power ouer men Which opinion was afterward receiued both of the Grecians and Romaines as it is most euident to them that obscrue their languages For as amongst the Romaines all such as were translated for their noble actes amongst the number of the Gods were called Indigetes as if you woulde saye dwellyng with the Gods. So the Atheniensians named suche worthie wightes Iupiters sonnes of God enioying heauen as it were by right of inheritance But in proces of tyme the Romaynes most honorably termed their Emperours and nobles Fathers of their countrey and added the names of Royaltie and Maiestie And finally accompting such speeches not answerable to their great enterprises and exploits they erected vnto them Images Altars Chappels Churches Holidayes and Sacrifices Which doings if you trie by the touchstone of true religion I confesse they will appeare drosse and be founde blame woorthy Yet I say by some sparke or glimse of nature or by some celestial inspiration they reuerenced nexte and immediatly vnder God the creator of things and somdeale adored the Magistrates These examples must needes please all sache as doe not barbarously reiecte the light of naturr and the Ladie of man Reason I meane and vnderstanding But most pithie perswasions comfortable consolations are drawen out of the welles of liuing water not only quencting mens drye and thirstie affections in this lyte but springing to life euerlasting Almightie God therfore in the regiment and policie of his owne people the Israelites after their entrance into the lande of Promise first appoynted Iudges and then Kinges vnto whome hee made the common people subiecte which authoritie and secular power of Magistrates Christ him selfe and the Apostles haue allowed and confirmed The answere of Christ touching paying of Tribute euen to a Heathen Magistrate is most euidēt Giue saith he to Caesar those things that belong to Caesar and vnto God those things that belong to God. Which precepte Christ himselfe fulfilled in paying Tribute The blessed mother of Christ Marie the virgine accompanied with Ioseph wente to Bethleem to bee taxed among other Citizens and subiectes The speeche of Christ to one of his company caryeth weight with it Put vppe thy swoorde in his place for all that take the swoord shall perith with the swoord In which sentence wee see the power of the Secular swoorde allowed hauyng annexed vnto it ordinarye and lawfull correction and punishment whereby priuate murders and other offences may be stayde and letted It followeth then of the premisses that thys condition of lyfe is bolye and acceptable to God whereby the disobedient are brideled and the innocent maynteyned and conserued Sainte Paul the chosen vessell enlargeth and expoundeth the wordes of hys maister Let euery soule be subiecte vnto the highe powers for there is no power but of God and the powers that bee are ordeyned of god Whosoeuer therefore resisteth the power resistech the ordinaunce of God and they that resist shall receyue to them selues iudgement for Princes are not to bee feared for good workes but for euill Wilt thou then bee without feare of the power doe will and so shalte thou haue prayse of the same for hee is the minister of God for thy wealth but if thou doe euill feare for he beareth not the swoord for naught for he is the minister of god to take vengeance on him that doeth euill Wherefore you must be subiect not bicause of wrath onlye but also for conscience sake For for this cause ye pay also Tribute for they are Gods ministers applying themselues for the same thing In this place the holie ghost calleth three tymes the Magistrate by the name of Gods minister And is not this a true a stedfast and an excellent comforte Is not the great and heauie burden of Magistrates made lighte Is not their pensiue myndes and carefull

Vnto the whiche question we shall answere both soundly and safely if we examine what honor is and gather a definition or declaration hereof out o● Gods word Honor hath sundry slgnifications in the scripture but as it serueth to this cause To honor is to feare to loue to reuerence to obey To obey I say as it were vnto God who exacteth the same at our hands and vnto whom we know out obedience acceptable so that if the magistrate shal eyther do or cōmaund any wicked thing wee may not obey eyther by imitation ●or by action For the latter commaundementes haue relation vnto the first But we are taught in the second commaundement the sinnes and iniquities of the fathers to be punished in the children vnto thr third and fourth generation Therefore they are not to be obeyed in thyngs against God and nature Ionathas hearkened not vnto his father Saule when he sought the life of Dauid and is therefore greatly commended in the word of god The three companions of Daniell obeyed Nabuchodonozer in politicall things they loued him and they reuerenced him as a mightie Monarch and most bountifull prince but when he exected Idolatrie they neglected his power and might Saint Peter the commaunder of obedience due to fathers and Magistrates when the seniors of the people woulde haue stopped hys mouth from preaching of the Lorde Iesus he aunswered earnesily VVe ought rather to obey God than men But what neede I to seeke many proofes seeing the Lorde him selfe hath comprehended all such authorities in one sentence If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his own life life also he cannot be my disciple It is out of all doubt that the magistrates ought not to commaund any thing againste God and the lawe of nature and they should bend all theyr studie so to gouerne that their subiects may feele and tast that they haue their authoritie from God and that they vse the same in god But if they enterprise any thing without that compasse the subiect shoulde preposterously prefer the seruant before the master It may be demaunded what if the Prince seeing his will and commaundement neglected vse extreame executions against such as will not obey him may the subiect resist with violence I say no no violence by no meanes Let him disobey not in rebelling but in suffering all iniuries and oppressions Let hym not by any calamitie be stirred to lift vp hys hand against a Ruler and so offend the maiestie of god And if he cannot by way of petition and supplication mitigate the Princes anger neyther yet by flight and departure auoyde the same it remayneth that he commit him selfe and his cause to that iust iudge who hath reserued vengeance to him selfe and hath promised to powre it vpon wicked and impenitēt persons at such a time as al their limmes and stayes shall slide from them The violence and extreame crueltie whiche wicked rulers do vnto Christian subiects are of two sortes For some touch temporall things only as our bodies our lands our liuings others do concerne heauēly things as the truth of gods word faith in Christ Iesus the true worshipping of God such like Now as for our Temporal things a Christian may sustayne damage vtter losse of al his goodes yea and of his life also yet may keepe his faith and hope of eternall life firme stable But he may not suffer those diuine heauenly things to be taken frō him For there is no creature bee he neuer so mighty that is able to spoile mē of those treasures Besides that the taking away of heauēly things lie not in the power of the magistrate but remayne by Gods grace in the will and consent of the beleener And the heauenly Lord onely is of power to exercise iudgemente in semblable cases eyther to reiect men and cast them away according to his iustice or to preserue them according to his mercie to eternall life So that albeit the Prince woulde with a thousande torments driue vs to imbrace superstition and idolatrie we are neyther bound to obey him neyther yet is he able if God bee on our side to vanquish and conquere vs. Moreouer there is no small difference betweene those men that doe patiently tolerate vniust violence those that do offer iniurious violēce to others A Christian may suffer with a good and quiet conscience iniustice but hee cannot in like sort practise and execute vnlawful things In all actions therefore the perfit line of Gods law is to be considered and that our desire wil is to do good things and to omit y cōtrary And if being deteined in bonds or imprisonmēts or otherwise we cānot serue y Lord our God yet do earnestly wish and desire to do it In suche case our willes and intentes are accepted before God for acts and deede Againe if the prince do command vs to do y which is to be auoided no man may excuse him selfe before God by reason of that cōmandement neyther wil it be a sufficient discharge vnto him to aunswere I was commanded I was compelled I did it vnwillingly S. Iohn saith this is the victorie whiche ouercommeth the world euen your faithe And howe shall we resist Sathan the greate prince of this world if we be such weakelings that we cannot resist no not the worlde And how shal we resist the whole world if through the threats torments of one worldly prince we turne our backes from the truth He that is regenerate by Gods spirite may truly say I do not now liue but Christ liueth in me I am perswaded that neyther death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come c. shall be able to separate vs from the loue of God whiche is in Christ Iesus our Lorde There is a mirror or glasse of such innocent and vprighte dealing in that worthy man Papinianus in profession a ciuill lawyer in religion an Ethnike which is as hereafter foloweth When the Emperour Autoninus Caracalla whome some do cal Bassinianus had murthered cruelly and vniustly his brother Getha in his mothers lappe who was so deare vnto the army for his father Seuerus his sake that the Souldiers were almost bent to runne vpon Bassinianus with their weapons for that fact the Emperour dealt with Papinianus his counseller whom all the Souldiers reuerenced for his deepe wisedome and vprighte Iustice to defende his vnnaturall offence vnto whome Papinianus aunswered Wilfull patricide ô Emperour is more easily commited than defe●●●d O worthy sentence and well beseeming a counseller and a lawyer That good man was more willing and readie to suffer like smart with Getha which he knew would proceede from the Tirant for his refusall than to defend or by any colour to smooth or cloke wilfull murder But some man will