Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	prince_n	state_n	subject_n	1,779	5	6.3897	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39270	The vanity of scoffing, or, A letter to a witty gentleman evidently shewing the great weakness and unreasonableness of scoffing at the Christian's faith, on account of its supposed uncertainty : together with the madness of the scoffer's unchristian choice.	Ellis, Clement, 1630-1700.	1674 (1674)	Wing E575; ESTC R3033	22,122	41

rate you think you say that for which the world is bound to return you many thanks and our Churches will now be soon emptied to fill the Tavern and the Alehouse and the jugling Priests be forced either to starve or stand to your courtesie whether they shall be entertain'd at your doors with a hard crust or a harder cudgel But be not angry I beseech you if I be bold to tell you that if these be your thoughts you flatter your self too much and may possibly stay as long for thanks from men that can consider what they do as you would make the poor Priests you so freely abuse stand for an alms at your gates They who rightly understand the meaning of your words and have so much wit as to think on any thing beyond their present lusts would hardly be perswaded to think any thing save that Hell which you deny more dreadful than that other Hell which this your wild inference if once generally assented to would make upon Earth Nay I dare say that could you win all men to be of the same mind of which you at present seem to be your self would be the first that would begin to contradict your self and be ready to cut your own throat to be revenged on your rashness in teaching men this mad lesson Suppose that every Prince should bring his Subjects every Lord his Tenants every Father his Children and every Master his Servants first to be of this opinion that nothing remains either to be feared or hoped for after death and that they should next from this opinion take up the same resolution to live as they list and enjoy their pleasure without all check of conscience I am very confident that if the Subjects should take arms to redeem their liberty the Tenant keep back his rent and not own his Landlord Children deny obedience to their Parents and Servants refuse to labour for their Masters those very same persons who first unadvisedly put this dangerous fancy into their heads would rather work all means to have those heads taken off from their shoulders than it should continue any longer there How unreasonable a thing is it then in you to triumph in derision over the Faith of Christians which you cannot but confess is the main buttress that upholds your own best beloved interests when should this your darling humour on which you now most blindly dote as much bewitch your inferiors as it hath done your selves it would at once make havock of your estates and honours and force you to do penance for your follies in sackcloth and ashes Can you yet hug your selves in your licentious thoughts and dream that wise men will admire and magnifie your wit Though most men do indeed express too great a fondness for their liberty yet I dare say a very few would be content to enjoy it upon those terms as you do promise it Most men do dread the effects of libertinism and licentiousness no less than they love the causes that produce them before they understand the evils they are pregnant with and therefore although too many ears be already set too wide open to your Syren notes yet is it a thing incredible that they should be so unwise when their eyes are opened too to see the rocks and whirlpools into the midst of which this ravishing musick would invite them as wilfully to run upon their own destruction Would it not think you be a very pleasing thing for men to live in perpetual feuds tumults and confusions What a gallant incouragement would it be to the poor husbandman when he durst not go to plough without his guard lest the next that comes should take away his oxen nor could cast the seed into the furrows without very reasonable fears that another should reap the crop when he builds an house to think that his next neighbour will set it on fire or thrust him out of his possession and when he is laid down to rest not to dare to shut his eyes lest his wife or child should cut his throat If all the fears of Hell and endless torments which Religion possesseth men withall are found weak enough to keep them within the bounds of honesty and good-neighbourhood then I must be bold to tell you Sir and all wise men will easily believe me that the reins of religion once cut in pieces by your Sophistry and nothing after this life left for men to fear or long for all the laws of man will be as easily broken as Sampson's Wit hs the Magistrates authority will be set at nought and the greatest power you can imagine in the civil sword will prove too weak to secure the publick peace or restrain the libertine from those outrages and extravagances which would render death a thousand times more eligible than life This is a thing too apparently the consequence of your doctrine for who are the men I pray you that dare despise the gibbet and the halter for any petty prey but those whom you have taught or else have been before-hand with you in believing that as well their misery as their happiness shall end there But your selves know very well the truth of what I now say and are too ready to make ill use of it to our present disturbance and your own future misery You can tell us when you list that Religion hath the greatest power to keep the World in awe and order but then you would perswade us to believe withall that it is no more but a politick invention which necessity set the wit of man on work to find out for that purpose I am not now to disprove any of your assertions being resolved to represent you to your own eyes with all the advantages you can desire you will find when you can but once allow your selves the liberty to consider things that you stand in need of more than all to win you the approbation even of your own judgments For supposing this that you would have are not you the only politick wise men of the world and do not we all owe you abundant thanks for thus opening a wide gap to all confusion and disorder and your own ruine amongst the rest of mankind whilest you endeavour to pull down that fence which you confess was wisely made and not without great cause to secure the peace and comfort of the world If all this be not yet enough to let you see how much you befool your selves whilest you deride our Faith and call your selves wise for living as you list consider but this one thing more how you must needs hereby deprive your selves of that only thing besides your wit wherein you seem to glory I mean the honour of being Loyal to your Prince It is most evident that you thus betray your selves to be the worst of subjects and the most dangerous of all that plead for Toleration in a State or Kingdom I confess indeed there is a sort of people that would be thought the only