Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	reason_n	scripture_n	3,945	5	6.1612	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51394	A sermon preached at the magnificent coronation of the most high and mighty King Charles the IId King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. : at the Collegiate Church of S. Peter Westminster the 23d of April, being S. George's Day, 1661 / by George Lord Bishop of Worcester.	Morley, George, 1597-1684.	1661 (1661)	Wing M2794; ESTC R204353	35,240	71

that it must needs be ill for the people in what sense soever they have many Princes whether it be by Cantoning the Countrey into parts or by sharing the Soveraignty of the whole either amongst many as in Aristocracy or amongst all as in a Democracy or amongst the Sword-men onely as in a Stratocracy or lastly by dividing the soul of the State from the Body the Church from the Common-wealth and by making two Soveraigns one in causes Civil and the other in causes Ecclesiastical over the same subjects whether the Conclave or the Consistory be the Cause of it In all which cases I say it is a Judgement of God upon a Nation to have more Princes then one as I hope I have made it appear both from the causes and effects of it But notwithstanding all the Evidence can be given of this truth either from Scripture or Reason from the Cause or the Effects of it we would not believe it till we felt it And therefore in the third place it hath pleased God because we vvere like beasts without understanding to teach us as he doth Beasts by our senses and to visit us of late as much or perhaps more then ever he did any nation vvith this very Judgement I mean plurality of Princes in all its kinds and degrees and vvith almost all the effects of it For after vve had said in our hearts Nolumus hunc regnare super nos I mean assoon as vve had rejected that EXCELLENT PRINCE who onely had right by all Lavves Humane and Divine to reign over us presently many of our fellovv subjects took upon them to be our Princes and to govern us arbitrarily at their ovvn pleasure in order to their own avaritious and ambitious ends And that first in an Aristocratical way as a Senate or Council of State wherein nothing could be done without consent of some of the Nobility and Gentry But it was not long after Royalty was gone but Nobility followed and was excluded also And then came in Democracy or the Government of the Common People by their own Representatives onely which encreased the number of our Princes and the vileness of our slavery by the meanness of our Masters But these their own Mercenaries did quickly deprive of the power they had Usurped and Abused And then came in Stratocracy or the Government by the Sword and thereby we had as many Princes as there were Bashaws or Major Generals who perhaps if they had out-liv'd their great Sultan they would have Canton'd the Kingdome and erected their several Provinces into so many several Principalities But by this means the very name of Liberty and property which were before pretended were quite taken away Onely there was liberty enough and too much indeed a Lawless boundless licence in matter of Religion all wayes of worshipping God being allowed but the true one and all admitted to the Sacred Function but such as were lawfully called unto it In the mean time every Sect had its head and every one that was head of a Sect was Prince of a Party so that we have seen what it is to have many Princes nay we have felt it to be a sore Judgement by the terrible effects of it which did spread themselves over the face and through the Veins and into the Bowels of the three Kingdomes at once embracing involving and confounding all places all persons and all conditions publick and private high and low sacred and prophane For from the King in his Throne to the Beggar in the dust no thing place or person almost hath been without feeling some or other the terrible effects of this Judgement How many have lost their Limbs their Liberty their Country their estates their friends and have been reduced to extream poverty both at home and abroad How many noble and Ancient Families have been ruin'd How many goodly buildings and Churches the glorious evidences and Monuments of our Ancestors Piety and charity have been prophaned and defaced How many poor innocent persons of both sexes all ages and all conditions have been either murther'd or banish'd or imprison'd or oppress'd with extortion of all kinds and of all Degrees without possibility of help or hope of remedy Lastly how many poor souls for which Christ dyed have been betrayed into Rebellion and Sacriledge Schism and Heresie Uncharitableness and Cruelty by the horrible abuse of Preaching Praying Fasting Vowing and all other the sacred ordinances of God And now if our poor Country when she felt these painfull strugglings and Convulsions within her bowels should have ask'd as Rebecca did when she felt Esau and Jacob striving within her womb If it be so why am I thus There could no other reason be given her for it but this in my Text It was for her Transgression it was for the Transgression of the Land it was for our National sins of Atheism of Profaneness of Sacriledge of Hypocrisie of Idleness of Gluttony or Drunkenness of uncleanness of Pride of Heresie together with our prevarication against God or our treacherous dealing with God in pretending to serve him best when we dishonour'd him most nay in pretending to serve him when we intended to serve our selves of him by making use of his Name his Word and his Ordinances in order to the pal●iating promoting and effecting our own ungodly and unrighteous designs These I say were our National sins and by these or some of these we have all of us contributed to the provocation of this Judgement So that they were not the sins of the Court onely nor of the City onely nor of the Countrey onely nor of any one particular order of men whether Clergy or Laity and much less of any one particular man or party of men that we can say were singly and abstractedly the cause of our Calamities no it was too great too universal to be the effect of little or few Provocations they were therefore the sins of the whole Nation the sins of All and every One of us which rising up as a Cloud from us fell down again in a showre of Judgements upon us so that there is not one of us to whom it may not truly be said Perditio tua ex te Thou hast deserved whatsoever thou hast suffer'd For if the best of us had been as good as we might and ought to have been it would not have been in the power of the worst of us to have made us so miserable as we were Indeed if all of us had not rebelled against God none of us would have Rebelled against the King at least their Rebellion would not have prospered as it did and consequently the Soveraignty would never have been shared amongst so many as it was Which as at first it was the effect of our sins so it hath been ever since the cause of our Miseries And as the Consideration of the former namely that our having of many Princes was an effect of the sins of us all or of our National sins will

Clear sound and and solid Understanding Improved by an Extraordinary Education Seasoned by Affliction Confirmed and ●erfected by the Knowledge of Men Books and Business when a Prince I say Is thus Qualified and withal intends the Work he hath to do by an actual application of his mind to it and by a careful and constant prosecution of it have we not reason to believe that such a Prince is mark'd out by the Divine Providence for some Great and Glorious Work or other And what can be a greater or more glorious Work then the setling and prolonging the State of a great Empire after it hath been so much and so long shaken and shatter'd as This of ours hath been And what more Evident Prognosticks can we have that this and none but this is the Man mark'd out by Heaven for the effecting of this great and glorious work then those which the Star at his Birth did point to and which we our selves have since seen come to pass with our own Eyes especially in the two most Memorable and most Remarkable Particulars I mean First His almost miraculous Preservation from many and great Dangers especially in and after the Battel of Worcester And Secondly His as much if not more miraculous Restitution to his Crown after his second Exile The immediate hand of God indeed was visible in them both but as I think more signally and more remarkably in the latter then in the former For many Princes perhaps have in as wonderful a manner escaped as great dangers but was it ever heard of in the World before that a King after having been so long excluded and after the Government it self of his Kingdome had been so often changed and after a new generation of men that knew not Joseph was sprung up in it Nay that even when the most violent men against him and most irreconcileable men to him were in possession of the Present Power and were Enacting a final Abjuration of him that then even then I say so beyond and above the hopes of his Friends so contrary to the desires and expectations of his Enemies and so much to the amazement of the whole World he should be so solemnly Invited so magnificently Conducted so triumphantly Received and so joyfully and universally Acknowledged and Welcomed by all the Subjects And all this without blood without blows without bargain and without any obligation at all to any Foreign Prince or State for it And is not this as much as if God should have said to us in plain terms Behold the Man behold your King Behold Charles the Sufferer the Son of Charles the Martyr the Grand-Child of James the Wise on the one side and of Henry the Great on the other and Heir to the several Excellencies of them both Behold the Man that must build up the Walls of Jerusalem and make up the breaches in Sion by Restoring and Setling whatsoever is yet wanting either in regard of our Civil concernments or our Spiritual Behold the Man that must Cure all our Jealousies Banish all our Fears Confirm all our Hopes and Settle all our Distractions Lastly Behold the Man that was Design'd by the Divine Providence that hath been Preserved by the Divine Power that is Qualified by the Divine Wisdome and Brought home again to us by the Divine Goodnesse and Mercy to settle and prolong the State of the three Kingdomes The State I say and that First as it signifies the Government it self in the Essential and Legal Frame and Constitution of it And Secondly as it signifies the Outward splendour of that Government arising from Peace Plenty Wealth Strength Security Reputation and whatsoever other ingredients there are to make a Nation happy But first the State must be setled in the former of these Notions as it signifies its Ancient Legal and Essential Constitution before it can be setled in the latter I mean in its outward splendour and prosperity All we have suffered under so Many Changes hitherto hath been to no purpose if we do not yet believe This Truth if we are not yet grown so much wiser then we were as to be convinc'd That our Old Government without any alteration at all in the Fundamentals of it is best for us And by the old Government I mean the thing as well as the name of Monarchy and that in all its parts as well as in some of them You cannot have the Old Government in the Civil part of the State if you have it not in the Ecclesiastical neither can the King be supreme in one unlesse he be supreme in both For where there are two Supremes there can be no Monarchy Now we know that Monarchy is from God and therefore we may know that whatsoever is Destructive to Monarchy or Inconsistent with Monarchy is not from God because Gods Ordinances cannot destroy or clash one against another But Thanks be to God and the King for it our Old Government is already Restored in both the parts of it and yet it cannot properly be said to be restored until it be setled as it was before and setled as it was before I am afraid it is not yet I hope it will be And when our Good Old Government Civil and Ecclesiastical is once setled then but not till then we may expect that the Ancient Splendour and Honour together with the Peace Prosperity and Security of the English Nation will be Restored and Setled also And as the Restoring and Setling of the latter d 〈…〉 depend upon the Restoring and Setling of the former so it is the preserving of the former that must be the prolonging of the latter for a● long as our Old Government is Preserved so long and no longer will our Peace and Prosperity be Prolonged And therefore let all those that Desire and Hope for the continuance of the one Endeavour and Pray for the continuance of the other In the mean time Blessed be the great and good God for all those great and good things which he hath already done for us For which of us would have Believed a little above a year agoe that ever he should have lived to have seen this Day Nay who is there amongst us that upon condition he might have liv'd to see this Day would not have been content to have Dy'd the next Day after And now we do see it do we not almost doubt whether we see it indeed or no or do we not seem unto our selves to be like unto those that Dream May we not say of this so great so sudden so wonderfull a Change from what we were of late to what we are now as Saint Paul saith of the calling of the Jews that it is like the Resurrection from the Dead Certainly no Joy on Earth can exceed it and I do verily believe that the Angels in Heaven have their share in it For if there be so great Joy in Heaven as our Saviour tels us there is at the Conversion of any one Sinner how much greater Joy is it then that is now there at the Conversion of three so great so sinfull Nations Nay if the Saints above know any thing of what is done here below either by Intuition of God or Revelation from God certainly that great and blessed Saint that happy and glorious Martyr the Father of our present Soveraign was never so much Grieved with the Injuries and Indignitities that were done unto himself as he is now well-pleased with this Dayes Solemnity and with the Due Rights and Honours which are now with so universal a Chearfulness paid unto his Son And therefore with Angels and Archangels and all the Hoast of Heav●n let us Laud and Magnifie the glorious Name of God and joyn with the Heavenly Quire in that Heavenly Anthem which was first sung at the Birth of our Saviour and may most seasonably be sung over again at the Inauguration of our King Glory be to God in the highest on Earth Peace Good will towards men And may this Day be Annually and for ever repeated with the same Joy and Exultation wherewith it is now Celebrated Let the King have alwayes more and more cause to bless God for his People and let the People have alwayes more and more cause to bless God for their King and let the prolonging of dayes to the one be the prolonging of happiness to the other And to this End may he live to see his Subjects as well as his Children to the third and fourth Generation And when he hath setled Gods House and his own the Church and the State and seen them both flourish and like to continue in a flourishing condition when he is full of dayes and Honour and when God hath no more work for him to do here then and not till then may he exchange the Crown of cares he is to put on now for a Crown of Glory which he shall wear for ever And let all that Love God and the King their Countrey and themselves say Amen FINIS Psa. 119.9 Vers. 10 Vers. 9