Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A84048
|
An Epistle to the reader. The end of this print is to present to thy view a most wise and pious speech, spoken to King James the Fifth of Scotland, by a councellor of his; the which having occasioned what is premised to it, I thought fit to let them come hand in hand to thee; ...
|
|
1655
(1655)
|
Wing E3168; Thomason E828_8; ESTC R11847
|
6,883
|
19
|
contract such acquaintance custom familiarity together that they will be intermixt in one City Family yea Mariage Bed State and Religion having nothing common Why I pray may not two Religions be suffered in a State till by some sweet and easie means they may be reduced to a right Government since in the Church which should be union it self and of which the Roman Church much vaunteth almost infinite Sects and kinds of Moncks are suffered differing in their Laws Rules of Government fashions of living dyet apparel maintenance and opinions of perfection and who sequester themselves from our publick union The Roman Empire had its extension not by similitude and likeness of Religion Different Religions providing they enterprize nor practise nothing against the Politick Laws of the Kingdom may be tolerated in a State The Murthers Massacres Battels which arise and are be like daily to increase amongst Christians all which are undertaken for Religion are a thousand times more execrable and be more open plain flat impiety than this Liberty of diversity of Religions with a quiet peace can be unjust Forasmuch as the greatest part of those who flesh themselves in blood and slaughter and overturn by arms the peace of their neighbours whom they should love as themselves spoiling and ravaging like famished Lions sacrifice their Souls to the infernal powers without further hopes or means of their ever recovering and coming back when those others are in some way of repentance In seeking Liberty of Religion these men seek not to believe any thing that may come in their Brains but to use Religion according to the first Christian Institutions serving God and obeying the Laws under which they were born That Maxim so often repeated amongst the Church-Men at Rome That the Chase and following of Hereticks is more necessary than that of Infidels is well applyed for the enlarging and increasing the Dominions soveraignity and Power of the Pope but not for the amplifying and extending of the Christian Religion and the weal and benefit of the Christian Common-wealth Kingdoms and Soveraignities should not be governed by the Laws and Interests of Priests and Church-Men but according to the exigency need and as the Case requireth of the Publick weal which often is necessitated to pass and tolerate some defects and faults It is the duty of all Christian Princes to endeavour and take pains that their Subjects imbrace the true faith as that semblably and in even parts they observe all Gods Commandments and not more one Commandment than another Notwithstanding when a Vice cannot be extirpate and taken away without the ruine of the State it would appear to humane Judgments that it should be suffered Neither is there a greater obligation bond necessity of Law to punish Hereticks more than Fornicators which yet for the peace and tranquillity of the State are tolerated and past over Neither can a greater inconvenience and harm follow if we should suffer men to live in our Commonwealth who believe not nor imbrace not all our Opinions In an Estate many things are for the time tolerated because they cannot without the total ruin of the State be suddenly amended and reformed These men are of that same nature and condition of which we are they worship as we do one God they believe those very same holy Records we both aim at Salvation We both fear to offend God we both set before us our happiness The difference between them and us hangeth upon this one point that they having found abuses in our Church require a Reformation Now shall it be said for that we run divers waies to one end understand not rightly others Language we shall pursue others with Fire and Sword and extirpate others from the Face of the Earth God is not in the bitter division and alienation of affections nor the raging flames of sedition nor in the tempests of the turbulent whirlwinds of contradictions and disputations but in the calm and gentle breathings of peace and concord If any wander out of the High-way we bring him to it again If any be in darkness we shew him light and kill him not In Musical Instruments if a string jar and be out of tune we do not frettingly break it but leasurely veer it about to a Concord and shall we be so churlish cruel uncharitable so wedded to our own Superstitious opinions that we will barbarously banish kill burn those whom by Love and Sweetness we might readily win and recall again Let us win and merit of these men by reason let them be cited to a free Council it may be they shall not be proved Hereticks neither that they maintain opinions condemned by the antient Councils let their Religion be compared and paralell'd with the Religion of the first age of the Church Shall we hold this People worse than the Jews which yet have their Synagogues at Rome it self let them receive instructions from a free and lawful Council and forsake their errors when they shall be clearly and fairly demonstrated unto them Heresie is an errour in the fundamental grounds of Religion Schism intendeth a resolution in separation Let a good Council be convocated and see if they be ready or not to reunite themselves to us That which they believe is not evil but to some it will appear they believe not enough and that there is in them rather a defect of good than any habit of evil Other points when they shall be considered shall be found to consist in external Ceremonies of the Church rather than in substance of doctrine or what is essential to Christianity These men should be judged before condemned and they should be heard before they be judged which being holily and uprightly done we shall find it is not our Religions but our private interests and passions which trouble us and our State FINIS London Printed by Henry Hills and John Field Printers to His Highness MDCLIV
in peace of them that make peace surely it were if this were so how would then the Gospel in the several Forms of it where Christ hath his Lambs and his Sheep which he will and doth look after flourish and in stead of being a Burthen and too justly an Offence to the World through the wrathful and unpeaceable spirit of too many of the Professors thereof be desireable and as it deserves in it self become the glory of all Nations which although we look for and hope and know in due time will be so when the more abundant pouring forth of the Spirit shall be yet we also know when that time does come the effect of it will be a glorious union of the People of God made to be of one spirit by that Spirit that teacheth to hold forth the Christian Profession before all in Faith and Love To this end and as a help thereunto and as some reproof to our most shameful and most unchristian carriage in these Lands is this Preamble written to a Paper herewith printed which was Counsel long ago given in those dawnings of Light to King James the 5th of Scotland by a person who was of his Council at such time as the Protestants were mightily increased by the Lord in Scotland and it being under consideration what was to be done with them this wholesom counsel was given which the King refusing immediately by the Prelates and his Popish Council was perswaded to raise a Bloody Inquisition and put the same in execution after which he never prospered but receiving that most miraculous Defeat of his Forces in his Invasion of England at Sallaway-Moss wherein they threw down their arms and were voluntarily taken every English Soldier gaining three or four prisoners as the Historian recordeth the News whereof no sooner came to the Kings ears but that he went home and after long watchings continual cares and passions abstinence from food and recreation had so extenuated his Body that pierced with grief anguish impatience and despair he remained fixed to his Bed and refusing to give access to his Nobility and Domestique Servants he so miserably dyed That most excellent Speech worthy to be written with the claw of an Adamant taken out of the Scotish History Entituled The History of SCOTLAND from the Year 1423. until the Year 1542. By William Drummond of Hauthorden page 210. is as followeth SIR Amongst the many blessings your Subjects enjoy under this your Government this is not the least that for the weal of your Majesty and the publique good of the Kingdom the meanest of your Subjects may freely open his mind and declare his opinion unto you his Soveraign And if ever there was a time in which grave good and sound counsel should be delivered to your Majesty it is this and the difficulties of the Common-Wealth do now require it Nor ever in matters of Advice and Consultation can we imbrace and follow what is most reasonable and what according to Laws Justice and Equity should be but what necessity driveth us unto and what is most convenient for the present time to be and what we may well and fairly accomplish and bring to pass The Estate of your Kingdome is troubled wâ—ih diversity of opinions concerning Religion It is to be wished that the one onely true Religion were in the hearts of all your Subjects since diversity of opinions of Religion and Heresies are the very punishment of God Almighty upon men for their horrible Vices and roaring sins And when men forsake his fear and true obedience God abandoneth them to their own opinions and fantasies in Religion out if which arise Partialities Factions Divisions Strife Intestine Discords which burst forth into Civil War and in short time bring Kingdomes and Common-wealths to their last periods But matters arising to such a beight and disorder as by all appearance they are like to advance in this Kingdome the number of the Sectaries daily increasing without dissembling my thoughts to your Majestie the preservation of the People being the Supreme and Principal Law which God Almighty hath enjoined to all Princes I hold it more expedient to give place to the exercise of both Religions than under pretence and shadow of them to suffer the Common Peace of your Subjects to be torn in pieces What can wisdome Sir advise you to do with these Separatists Either they must be tolerated for a time or they must altogether be removed and that by Death or Banishment So soon as a Prince beginneth to Spoyl Banish Kill Burn his People for matters abstract from sense and altogether spiritual he becommeth as it were a plague unto them It is an Errour of State in a Prince for an opinion of Piety to condemn to Death the Adherers to new Doctrine For the constancy and patience of those who voluntarily suffer all temporal Miseries and Death it self for matters of Faith stir up and invite numbers who at first and before they had suffered were ignorant of their Faith and Doctrine not onely to favour their Cause but to imbrace their opinions Pitty and Commiseration opening the gates Thus their Belief spreadeth it self abroad and their number dayly encreaseth It is no less Errour of State to banish them Banished men are so many Enemies abroad ready upon all occasions to invade their Native Countrey to trouble the Peace and Tranquillity of your Kingdome To take Arms against Sectaries and Separatists will be a great Enterprize a matter hard and of many dangers Religion cannot be preached by arms the first Christians detested that form of proceedings Force and Compulsion may bring forth Hypocrites not true Christians If there be any Heresie amongst your People this wound is in the Soul our Souls being spiritual Substances upon which fire and Iron cannot work They must be overcome by spiritual Arms Love the men and pitty their Errours Who can lay upon a man a necessity to believe that which he will not believe or what he will believe or doth believe not to believe No Prince hath such powwer over the Souls and thoughts of men as he hath over their bodies Now to ruine and extirpate all those Sectaries what will it prove else than to cut off one of your arms to the great prejudice of your Kingdom and weakning of the State they daily increasing in number and no man being so miserable and mean but he is a member of the State The more easie manner and nobler way were to tolerate both Religions and grant a Place to two Churches in the Kingdom till it shall please Almighty God to return the minds of your Subjects and turn them all of one will and opinion Be content to keep that which ye may Sir since ye cannot that which ye would It is a false and erroneus opinion That a Kingdom cannot subsist which tolerateth two Religions Diversity of Religion shutteth not up Society nor barreth civil conversation among men a little time will make persons of different Religions