THE GOOD AND THE BAD;

OR,

DESCRIPTIONS OF THE WORTHIES AND

UNWORTHIES OF THIS AGE.

BY NICHOLAS BRETON.

A WORTHY KING.

A worthy king is a figure of God, in the nature of government.  He is the chief of men and the Church’s champion, Nature’s honour and earth’s majesty:  is the director of law and the strength of the same, the sword of justice and the sceptre of mercy, the glass of grace and the eye of honour, the terror of treason and the life of loyalty.  His command is general and his power absolute, his frown a death and his favour a life:  his charge is his subjects, his care their safety, his pleasure their peace, and his joy their love.  He is not to be paralleled, because he is without equality, and the prerogative of his crown must not be contradicted.  He is the Lord’s anointed, and therefore must not be touched, and the head of a public body, and therefore must be preserved.  He is a scourge of sin and a blessing of grace, God’s vicegerent over His people, and under Him supreme governor.  His safety must be his council’s care, his health his subjects’ prayer, his pleasure his peers’ comfort, and his content his kingdom’s gladness.  His presence must be reverenced, his person attended, his court adorned, and his state maintained.  His bosom must not be searched, his will not disobeyed, his wants not unsupplied, nor his place unregarded.  In sum, he is more than a man, though not a god, and next under God to be honoured above man.

AN UNWORTHY KING.

An unworthy king is the usurper of power, where tyranny in authority loseth the glory of majesty, while the fear of terror frighteneth love from obedience; for when the lion plays with the wolf, the lamb dies with the ewe.  He is a messenger of wrath to be the scourge of sin, or the trial of patience in the hearts of the religious.  He is a warrant of woe in the execution of his fury, and in his best temper a doubt of grace.  He is a dispeopler of his kingdom and a prey to his enemies, an undelightful friend and a tormentor of himself.  He knows no God, but makes an idol of Nature, and useth reason but to the ruin of sense.  His care is but his will, his pleasure but his ease, his exercise but sin, and his delight but inhuman.  His heaven is his pleasure, and his gold is his god.  His presence is terrible, his countenance horrible, his words uncomfortable, and his actions intolerable.  In sum, he is the foil of a crown, the disgrace of a court, the trouble of a council, and the plague of a kingdom.

A WORTHY QUEEN.