Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	kingdom_n	majesty_n	scotland_n	5,404	5	8.6690	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56252	The history of popedom, containing the rise, progress, and decay thereof, &c. written in High Dutch by Samuel Puffendorff ; translated into English by J.C.	Pufendorf, Samuel, Freiherr von, 1632-1694.; Chamberlayne, John, 1666-1723.	1691 (1691)	Wing P4176; ESTC R5058	76,002	238

Counts Lords Free Knighthoods and Imperial Cities besides a great many in Protestant Countries which all together according to my Estimate will amount to two thirds of Germany In Holland we find a great many Papists and there were a great many of the same leaven in England though God be thanked since the Happy Coming of Their Present Majesties to the Crown the Land is pretty well scowr'd of them On the other side we reckon among the Protestants the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland with all their dependences Suedeland Denmark Holland the most of the Temporal Electors and Princes together with the Imperial Cities of Germany The Protestants of France are at present disarm'd those of Poland are not in a condition to undertake any thing the Cities of Prussia and Curland have enough to do to maintain the free exercise of their Religion Transylvania can do but little And the Papists have besides this advantage above the Protestants That they all of 'em own the Pope for Supreme Head of their Church and do at least with their Mouth and externally profess one and the same Faith But on the contrary the Protestants have no visible Spiritual Head but are miserably divided amongst themselves for not to mention those little Sects of Arminians Socinians Anabaptists and the rest their Body is divided into almost two equal parts of Lutherans and Calvinists amongst which a great many are as much imbitter'd against one another as they are against the Common Enemy the Papists Besides there is no general Policy or Government in the Religion amongst them but in every state the particular Soveraign regulates the Affairs thereof according to his own will and pleasure Nor can it be denied that commonly speaking the Papists do with more Zeal Labour and Industry promote the advancement and propagation of their Religion than do the Protestants who have mostly in view how they may conveniently subsist by their Benefices as the chiefest prospect of Handicrafts-men is how to get their Living by the Trade to which they apply themselves So that the search of the Kingdom of God is as the reserve and the last thing they take care for Whereas the Monks and Jesuites on the contrary have brought themselves into great repute by their Missions both into the East and West Indies and though in the relations they give us thereof they intermit a thousand fabulous reports yet the thing in it self is extreamly laudable In fine there is such an irreconcileable Jealousie among the chiefest of the Protestant States that it is morally impossible ever to perswade them to submit to one Head As for example Betwixt England and Holland Suedeland and Denmark not to mention the rest Though again it must be owned too that there are no less Jealousies between France and Spain which will scarcely permit them to act unanimously against the Protestants So that notwithstanding the great inequality in strength that there is between the Protestants and Papists the former need never apprehend the Oppression of the latter In the mean while there is a great difference between the Protestants that form an Independent State and those that are under the Yoke of Popish Lords for these are not half so well assur'd of the maintenance of their Religion as are the others Thus the Security of the French Protestants depends on the bare word of the King and the Edict of Nantes so that they would be in a sad condition if the French King should at any time be possest with a Spanish or Austrian Zeal Yet I don't believe he will ever undertake to force them in the matter of Religion as long as they live peaceably and contented with that Liberty he allows them especially if he considers the good Service they rendered to his Grandfather Henry the Fourth and that he himself without their assistance had never arrived to the Crown of France Nor can Poland easily suppress the exercise of the Protestant Religion in Curland and Prussia as long as Dantzick enjoys its Liberty In Germany the Protestants are strong enough So that if they were united under one Head they would make a formidable Kingdom but the great number of their Chiefs the diversity of their Interests and their distance from one another diminishes their Strength very considerably so that the Emperor in the space of an hundred years had twice reduc'd them to such a condition that their Religion and Liberty which are so inseparably annex'd that the loss of one would have been a necessary consequence of the other's loss had both been ruin'd without the assistance of France and Suedeland 'T is true of late years some have pretended to hold forth this new Maxim That the Protestants in Germany are able to subsist and maintain their Liberties without the help of those two Crowns and that Brandenburg is very fit to have the management and direction in Chief of all their Affairs And 't is indeed the real Interest of the House of Austria that such an Opinion should prevail among the Protestants 'T is with this Pretext that the Brandenburger and the House of Lunenburg cover the desire they have of putting themselves in possession of those Lands which the King of Suedeland has in Germany whilst they give out They are as well able to maintain them in the enjoyment of their Liberty and Religion as the other Protestant States Yet it is most certain that if these two Houses should attain their ends their additional Grandeur would render them less formidable to the Emperor than they are at present whilst back'd and supported by the King of Suedeland And they are no less deceived if they think to find as sure a Support from Denmark or Holland as they have received from France and Suedeland And thirdly Should the Emperor once attain to his desire and dispossessing those two Crowns of what they have at present in Germany introduce again the Spanish Faction and mortifie the States by the maintenance of a standing Army and other Inconveniences of War who at such a time could oblige the Emperor to disband his Victorious Troops And if for example the Emperor could find no Pretext to keep his Army together and to oblige the Protestants to maintain it at their cost will Brandenburg and Lunenburg make head against him And fourthly If in case the Protestant States should not find themselves equal to so vast a Work Whether those two Crowns would at their Call come and help them And whether their own Affairs would permit them to undertake so important a design Or lastly Whether there would fall down from Heaven another Gustavus Adolphus to redeem them from the very brink of Destruction and make as great a progress as that mighty Conqueror once did And as for such as believe that the Security of the Protestant Religion can consist alone in Parchment and Seals or that the Emperor will not attempt the Soveraignty of Germany if ever a fair occasion presents it self whilst he

shall find convenient to impose them now these bring no small profit to them for tho' the impos'd pennance mostly consists in Prayers Pilgrimages Fastings Whippings and such like yet the rich are always condemned to some pecuniary mulct which must be converted to the Benefit of the Convents Churches and the Poor under which they comprehend the Begging Friars who therefore them themselves minimos Fratrum according to the fifteenth of St. Matthew that their bag might be the better fill'd Now this interpretation of the Scripture has burthened Christendom with more than an hundred thousand idle Bellies Besides The first sort of Penitence may easily be redeem'd by Money if they on whom 't is impos'd should find it too grievous and in effect What rich man is there that would not shew himself respectful and liberal to his Holy Father that he may be merciful to him and make his pennance more light and easy 'T is no hard matter to guess why good works are reckoned amongst the means of obtaining Salvation for as soon as they proceeded to give the definition of good works they placed in the first rank all Gifts and Liberalities bestow'd on the Clergy Churches and Convents and other acts introduc'd by the Pope and his Creatures out of a principle of Hypocrisy and Superstition to which they added this Doctrine That the Monks and Friars could not only satisfy for their own sins but that they had also an inexhaustible stock of Supererrogatory Merits remaining to be bestow'd for the use and service of the sinful Laity from which Superfluity they have erected a Magazine of an extreamly profitable Merchandice which cost them nothing either to stow or keep which neither grows mouldy nor musty by length of time which never diminishes and which in a word cannot be restor'd by the buyer tho' he should afterwards chance to discover the insignificancy and unprofitableness thereof They have likewise burthen'd the exercise of Religion with so many unnecessary Ceremonies Holy-Days and superfluous Processions built so many useless Churches Chapels and Altars only that the swarming drones of the Clergy may have just something to do and not seem to be always and wholly idle and to the end that they may still get a little by these and the like Fopperies This is likewise the reason of their multiplying the Sacraments to the number of seven since the administration of each one brings in grist to the Priest's Mill They have introduc'd the Mass without Communicants baptizing it a Sacrifice for the Living and for the Dead to the end that the Dead as well as the Living may be put under Contributions Besides nothing of Importance is taken in hand by a pious Catholick till he has made a Mass be said for his good success There is no Man of Quality that dies without ordering a good number of Masses to be said for his Soul for which the Priest must be well greas'd in the Fist It happen'd once by chance or forgetfulness that the Cup was not administred to the Laity afterwards it became a Law and tho' the Institutions of Christ and the practice of the Church for several hundred Years together was directly contrary to this encroachment yet they obstinately persisted therein lest it might be said the Church has err'd and that the Clergy might enjoy a Prerogative above the Laity nay so far their impudence proceeded that as if they design'd to mock both GOD and Man they give the Laity the unblest Cup which in a scornful manner they name the Washing Cup as if they had eaten some unclean thing and must wash their Mouths after it Marriage must be turn'd into a Sacrament tho' it seem never so absurd and ridiculous that the Clergy alone may take cognizance of all Affairs thereunto belonging which being almost innumerable are very profitable to them and of no less consequence for thereon depend the Estates Inheritances and Successions not only of private Persons but many times of Kingdoms also hence it was that Mary the first Queen of England found herself oblig'd to re-establish Popery in her Kingdom whilst without the Pope's Authority she could never have past for Legitimate thus Philip the third King of Spain saw himself indispensably engag'd to espouse the Pope's Interest because amongst other obligations it was not the least that he permitted him to be born of his Father's Sister's Daughter which could hardly have receiv'd a Dispensation amongst other Christians Now the same Religion that scruples not to dispense with the nearest Bonds of Consanguinity has introduc'd an endless Roll of forbidden Degrees and likewise forg'd a new sort of spiritual Affinity Why To afford the Priests a more frequent occasion of Dispensations which brings in an inestimable Revenue In the extream Unctions the Clergy have found out a very proper expedient of giving the dying person a friendly admonition to make some pious Legacies all which tends to their profit Nor is there any other design in the Fiction of Purgatory than to wheedle those that are just departing and who then little value the goods they must leave to others to give a good part thereof to the Clergy to the end that by their Prayers and Masses they may the sooner get out of a place so terribly hot and thirsty The adoration likewise of Relicks does not make the least part of the Clergy's Revenue for with an old rotten knuckle-bone they will reward the greatest Services that the Pope's most faithful Creatures shall have rendred to him The Invocation of Saints has furnish'd them with a very fair and specious pretext of building so many the more Churches of Instituting more Holy-Days of providing more Priests to officiate and of extorting more Money from the Laity to maintain them Besides the Canonization of Saints which depends on the Pope's breath does contract a greater respect and admiration of his power as if he could dispose of Charges and Offices in Heaven and that God Almighty were oblig'd to receive all the Candidates the Pope should present him by which means he can dispose of the wills of other Princes Subjects offering so considerable a Reward to their Ambition and Credulity on condition that they will maintain his Interests to the very last To which we may add That since Superstition has got the upper hand none but Ecclesiasticks have been admitted into the number of Saints and especially such of them who by some rare Master-piece of Hypocrisy and a false and affected Devotion have render'd themselves Famous o'er the World And if this Honour has at any time been granted to a Secular Person either he or those that sollicited it for him must have merited it by no common Services As to the rest I shall not trouble my self to particularize how the Clergy have cheated poor simple people of their Money by the invention of Miracles Images Apparitions Exorcisms Indulgences Jubilee-Years forbidden Meats and a thousand such like Tricks and Devices Sect. 34. After these means the