Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	act_n	king_n	title_n	3,788	5	7.4113	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61457	An account of the growth of deism in England	Stephens, William, d. 1718.	1696 (1696)	Wing S5459; ESTC R19943	19,063	34

maketh the matter worse For notwithstanding King James is as they will have it Conquer'd and his Throne which was declared vacant is legally filled by one who by Act of Parliament is declared our Rightful King yet after all this Dr. S will reserve a Right to King James though through Success and Settlement he will allow a Right also to King William And this Notion the Clergy generally adhere to because thereby they kill two or three Birds with one stone 1st They preserve to themselves their ancient Right of giving Titles to Sovereignty For though both King and Parliament have disclaimed and damned the Conquest yet the Clergy still insist upon it 2ly They make fair Weather with King James by keeping his Title alive and by still asserting his Right open him a Door to recover his Possession again For what honest Christian can oppose a Rightful King in regaining the Possession of his Throne which is kept from him by a Successful Usurper and 3ly They think they have obliged King William sufficiently by the formality of an Oath and owning him in his Possession Put all this together and 't will prove that When all the Argument is out 'T is Interest still resolves the doubt Thus cry they you plainly see that your Church is nothing but a Party to which whosoever joineth himself shall find his Account thereby notwithstanding any Error Heresy Immorality or Disloyalty to the present Government whatsoever whilst any other who is conformable to the Rubricks and Canons whose Learning and Morals are an Honour to his Gown and who is truly dutiful to his Majesty shall be excluded from all those benefits his Profession would entitle him to Thus the bold Asserters of King James's Right enjoy some of the best Preferments and particularly Dr. S sits D of St. P whilst honest Mr. Johnson is starving upon Charity The Church of England is a meer Party say they again and has a Watch-word whereby they know one another which they can vary upon occasion Non-Resistance was the Word in King Charles's days For though at that time you did conform to every tittle and ceremony injoin'd by Rubrick and Canon yet if you failed in the Point of Non-Resistance you were a Phanatick and Republican a Rebel and what not Now if this Doctrine be contain'd in the Book of Homilies as the Jacobites say 't is a Sacred Record of the Unjustice of some of those who concurred in the late Revolution The Shiboleth of the Church now is King William's de facto Title And no Conformity to Homilies and Rubricks will make you owned by the present Church if you should acknowledge the King to be otherwise said than a meer de facto Now say they although we grant that Men will submit to the Government upon their own particular Principles and therefore 't is reasonable that the King should admit the Obedience of his Subjects upon what Grounds they please yet we know no Reason why the Church should set up the de facto as the only Principle of Obedience And when the King had better Titles to his Crown as the Consent of the People in Parliament and his Matrimonial Title with the Queen yet he must be made to pay the greatest price for the weakest and worst of all Titles and give Dr. S Sixteen Hundred Pounds a Year for a Defactoship only You see Sir that the Deists want not Occasions for their Prejudices how far soever they are from having Reason o' their side And pray resolve me why must this false Title be set up as 't were by the King's Consent to worm out the only true one Why must none be preferr'd to Church-Dignities but such who come in upon this Title only And those who own the King 's Right upon the Consent of the People be still labouring under the Church's highest displeasure and poor Johnson a Man against whom no Immorality was ever objected that is an Object even of the Deists Compassion be left to starve for the Cause Nay they have gone so far upon the Strength of Dr. S Convocation-Title in Opposition to that of Parliament that since the good Queen is dead and the Consent of the People according to them null and void they have left the King a bare Possession without any Title at all 4. I am acquainted with a Gentleman who for some Years has not gone to Church having taken offence at those Practices I was now writing upon This Man you must know had an extraordinary Veneration for the profound Learning so he thinks much reading and common-placing to be of a certain Eminent Divine who had a fat Bishoprick bestow'd on him by King William and Queen Mary But he to requite their Kindness when a Bill was brought before the Lords declaring the King and Queen's rightful and lawful Title to the Crown not only opposed and voted against it in the House but when it had passed he entred his Protestation against it in the Journal Nay said this Gentleman if King William be only King de facto then the Bishop is de facto only Truly Sir you may believe me that I was amaz'd at this Relation for as I then said though most Men look no further than only to get Mony de facto and do not with much strictness inquire quo jure yet 't was strange that any Man should protest that he had no right to that Estate which he openly continued in Possession of But I was soon answer'd by this his former Admirer that if that Bishop had strengthened his own Title to the Bishoprick from King J. I might cease my wonder I am indeed sorry to hear Stories of this Nature especially when they assure me of the Truth of 'em and when I see the ill Consequences of them For though nothing be more certain than that the Baseness and Falshood of Man can never disprove the Truth of God yet when Men are highly Scandaliz'd and greatly deceived by those for whom they had Esteem and by whose Authority they in great measure governed themselves they will stretch their Conclusion beyond their Premisses and disown Religion in their Principle because 't is disregarded by some great Men in their Practice But though to strict Reasons such Arguments for Deism appear ridiculous yet from the Promotion of these de facto Men I am told hath arisen great disadvantage to the King and those Subjects whose Principles and Practices have been always faithful to his Majesties Interest Since hereby it is that it hath always been in the power of the open and professed Enemies of the King to oppress his most dutiful Subjects For these de facto-men and the Jacobites were but lately the same sort of People both of the same Principle and Temper And though the Jacobites do now rail at them for their base Complyances as they term it with the P. of O's Revolution yet the de factos are unwilling for old Acquaintance sake to pass by their Railing and underhand

this Power with the 12. As for delivering up to Satan and inflicting Diseases since 't was a miraculous Power which we read not that Christ appropriated to the 12 we have no reason to think 't was detained from the 70. If then Christ appointed but one Order viz. that of Teachers the Order of Rulers dignified themselves above and distinguished themselves from their Brothren yet I am willing to submit to those Powers which the Laws of England have given to the Bishops though what they claim by Divine Right I esteem as an Usurpation Moreover says he although I am become a Christian I have not ceased to be an English-man and for that reason cannot be in party with the Bishops who by their false-prerogative Doctrines and other shameful Assistances so lately betray'd the Charters and Liberties Rights and Privileges of their Country were setting up an absolute irresistible Power in K. Charles II. which being demised to K. James endangered not only the Liberty and Property but Body and Soul of the Nation Nor can I so soon forget how their long debates about admitting the P. of Orange our Good and Great King to the Sovereignty was the occasion of spilling so much Protestant Blood in Ireland nor the late Protestation of some of the chief of their Party against his Majesties Right to the Crown nor how careful they have been since that as it now falls out he should have no pretence to any rightful Title If any Clergy-man was so honest as to Preach up his Right as justly grounded on the Consent of the People as Mr. Johnson for instance he must lie under pain of the Church's highest displeasure though otherwise ever so Orthodox and Conformable so that since the beloved Title of Conquest is burnt by the Parliament and the Matrimonial Title is to the great grief of all good Men dead and buried with the Queen it remaineth according to Holy Church that he hath no Title at all but only bare Possession and this they mean when they call him de facto But I cannot find that they will allow him to be King of the Clergy so much as de facto Alas his Livings whereby alone he is capable to oblige them to call to mind their now forgotten Loyalty which of late years they preached up as the summ of the Law and the Prophets Alas these good Things are taken out of his hands by the Conquering Bishops that the Clergy may have a separate Interest from the State on this side the Water and be led to pay an intire Allegiance to the holy Order When Hen. VIII came to know that his Bishops swore Allegiance to the Pope he began to think of some ways and means how to make himself King of his Clergy which he saw could not be done but by casting out the Pope's Power and hence sprung that King's Reformation of his Politicks rather than Religion And if our good King were sensible of the Reasons why an English Papacy is settled in a Committee of Six viz. to fix the Obedience of the Clergy on themselves exclusively for no Man can serve two Masters I doubt not but he would think fit to demand what is so much wanted viz. the Allegiance of the Clergy to their King if he dissolves this Committee he may ask and have for where their Treasure is there their Hearts will be also For these Reasons said he I shall be cautious how I enter into Church-membership since I plainly see that every Party of Christians embodied organized clergy'd and modelled into a National Church casteth an awe upon the Sovereign Power and suffereth it not to provide equally for the Common Good of the Subject but will appropriate the salus publica and influence the Government to serve its own particular it s own private Ends. Thus Sir I have given you an account of those Prejudices which have brought forth Deism But yet these very Prejudices without a strong assistance of Passion could never have wrought upon Men to cast off Revelation for you see the same Prejudices remain in the Deist turn'd Christian Whosoever therefore upon the fore-mentioned Reasons turneth Deist cannot be excused tho' I could heartily wish all these Pretences could be taken away from ' em I am far from begrudging the Bishops and Clergy that small Maintenance which by Law is settled upon them and I hope they have no other aim in discharging their Offices but to save our Souls by imprinting on our Hearts the Reason the Excellency and Advantages of the Law of Christ I hope also that they comport themselves to the Common Interest of their Native Country and of the Protestant Religion throughout the World Truly I could wish that Notional Divinity were laid aside for Practical and that unintelligible Mysteries were not insisted on as matters of necessary Belief He who lately wrote his Thoughts of the Causes and Occasions of Atheism might have consider'd that he who cloggeth the Notion of God with Absurdities mis-leadeth Men beyond Deism I pray God give me his Grace by which I may sincerely conform my self to the Law of Christ and I will never concern my self with the Speculative Drs. in Divinity And I heartily join with our Church in that Petition Give grace O heavenly Father to all Bishops and Curates that they may both by their Life and Doctrine set forth thy true and lively Word and rightly and duly Administer thy holy Sacraments By this they would bring Souls to Heaven gain the Love of all good People secure their own Temporal Interests stop the Mouths of their Adversaries and compel the Deists to become Christians I am Sir Your Affectionate c. FINIS If your Curiosity should lead you to be an Ear witness of such Discourses I have here Written to you when I come to Town which will be as soon as the Parliament Sits I will endeavour to give you that Satisfaction