Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	act_n	king_n	parliament_n	3,024	5	6.5132	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26404	The addresses importing an abhorrence of an association, pretended to have been seized in the E. of Shaftsbury's closet, laid open and detected, in a letter to a friend		1682 (1682)	Wing A569; ESTC R21222	6,551	4

it receive the Royal stamp How strangely does it look in a well-governed State to find such a one as the Mayor of Gl. who was admitted into the freedom of that City for the good sevice which he did in fighting against Charles Steward at Worcester as the words inserted in their Town-Book bear to be hugg'd and embraced for advancing Addresses of one complection while in the mean time many Loyal Gentlemen who shed their Blood lost their Estates and underwent Imprisonment and Exile for the King are frown'd upon for offering to appear in applications of another figure Men of Principles act always uniformly whereas such as are sway'd by interest are ready to engage with the same heat in every thing that lyes in subserviency to their gain Some people think it not enough to attone for their former actions by their future Loyalty but they seek to expiate their Crimes on one side by running into illegal rigorous and mad excesses on the other And I heartily wish that an eminent Magistrate in the City of London may not hope to make a compensation for having been a Clerk to a Regiment in the War against the late King by complying with and pursuing whatsoever some men about the Court or such who are influenced by those that are put him upon But what is this age degenerated into that they who have served themselves of Dissenters in order to their getting into places of Trust by proclaiming what blessed opportunities they have enjoyed with that sort of men under this and that Nonconformist Minister should instead of expressing a concern for the Protestant Religion answerable to the are of it and the stations they are in not only abandon but from weakness fear or worse Principles submit to be Tools to accelerate its ruine However I am sure the Government hath no cause of apprehending danger either from Phanatick Preachers or Poeple seeing some of the most fam'd amongst them after having been a hundred times deceived and imposed upon are still ready to be brib'd by a dinner or a smile or wheedled by a fair word to co-operate with their enemies and become instrumental of their own destruction And therefore it is to be desired that some of the dissenting Ecclesiasticks would be contented with Grace which is the Talent that God hath given them and not pretend to Civil Wisdom seeing it is evident to all the world that the Great Dispenser hath withheld it from them These thing being briefly intimated it is now time to advance those Reflexions and Observations which we judg proper to be offered upon the occasion of the late Abhorring Addresses Nor will it be amiss in the first place to take notice how some mens opinions concerning these kind of Applications do alter and vary according to and in correspondence with the design and interests which men serve For the very person that is not only principally employ'd in framing the draughts which are remitted into the Countrey where Lieutennants Justices and Curates are commissioned to procure subscriptions to them but whose Province it is to publish their usefulness to the Government and to make the world believe what security the State receiveth from them in order to its support in the pursuance of present Councels I say this very Gentleman had different thoughts concerning Addresses some years ago when they came in sholes to Oliver Cromwell and with great multitudes of hands subjoined to them from what he now hath For says he Those numerous and pretended Applications as they were but an Artifice to piece up the Protectors broken Power as far as well it could be See Mr. L'Estranges Memento p. 30. so they were but false Glosses upon his Power and Cromwel was too wise to think them other For being gained by contrivement and force or at least by importunity half a score pitiful wretches stiled themselves the people of such or such a County and there was the Total of the reckoning But we may the less wonder at this change of Judgment in some men as to the significancy or insignificancy of Addresses if we consider how the opinion of the Papists is much altered from what it was 90 years ago as to the Right which the next in the Royal Line hath to inherit the Crown after the Ruling Prince For whereas we have nothing from them now but that it is an unpardonable Sin to exclude the Presumptive Heir be his Principles what they will and our danger from him in case he succeed never so visible they spake another kind of Language towards the end of Queen Elizabeths Reign when they foresaw that a Protestant was likely after her to ascend the Throne namely That Succession to Government is neither established by the Law of Nature See Doleman nor the Law of Revelation but only by Humane Sanctions which men may cancel and alter as their interest determines them For though they tell us now of the indispensable Obligations we are under of submitting quietly in case His Majesty should Die to the D. of Y. albeit we cannot but think the subversion of our Religion and the extirpation of our selves ready to ensue thereupon yet they were pleased to tell our Ancestors that no Free people were under Ties to the next of the Royal Line but that they ought to put the Scepter into such a ones hand under whom they might promise themselves to live with Safety and Honour But we may the more easily pardon the Papists for shifting Principles according to the posture which their affairs stand in if we will observe how the Protestants of this Age differ from those of the former in reference to the duty of submitting to or debarring a Popish Successor For whereas heretofore not only the whole Clergy but the Nobility and Gentry Courtiers as well as others derived their main Arguments against Mary Queen of Scots from the danger that the Protestant Religion would be in if being in their power she were suffered to survive Queen Elizabeth It is now come to pass that many of all Orders and Ranks who pretend themselves Protestants are not only contented that a Popish Prince may be dispensed with as to his Religion himself and live quietly amongst them but they seem uneasie in having a Protestant King and long to have one of Popish Principles to Rule over them See Bowes Journals How disagreeable as to a Popish Successor are the late Addresses from the Petitions Votes and Acts of Parliament and the carriage of the whole Kingdom in the 14 27 28 and 29 years of Queen Elizabeth Then an Association to Revenge the Death of the Queen upon the Papists in case she came to an untimely end was esteemed a piece of Loyalty and promoted by the Chief Ministers of State but now the Abhorring not only an ill-fram'd Paper bearing that Title but all kinds of Associations of this nature and tendency if His Majesty should fall by Popish hands is accounted the Character both of a