Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	authority_n	church_n	scripture_n	4,231	5	6.1426	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28378	Resuscitatio, or, Bringing into publick light severall pieces of the works, civil, historical, philosophical, & theological, hitherto sleeping, of the Right Honourable Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount Saint Alban according to the best corrected coppies : together with His Lordships life / by William Rawley ...	Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626.; Rawley, William, 1588?-1667.	1657 (1657)	Wing B319; ESTC R17601	372,122	441

of Mortification which I think with very good Meaning they have preached out of ●heir own Exprience and Exercise And Things in private Counsels not unmeet But surely no Sound Conceits Much like to Parsons Resolution or not so good Apt to breed in Men rather weak Opinions and perplexed Despaires then Filiall and True Repentance which is sought Another Point of great Inconvenience and perill is to entitle the People to hear Controversies and all Kinds of Doctrine They say no part of the Counsell of God is to be suppressed nor the People defrauded So as the Difference which the Apostle maketh between Milk and Strong Meat is confounded And his Precept that the weak be not admitted unto Questions and Controversies taketh no place But most of all is to be suspected as a Seed of further Inconveni●nce their Manner of Handling the Scriptures For whilest they seek expresse Scripture for every Thing And that they have in a manner deprived themselves and the Church of a speciall Help and Support by Embasing the Authority of the Fathers They resort to Naked Examples Conceited Inferences and Forced Allusions such as do mine into all Certainty of Religion Another Extremity is the Excessive Magnifying of that which though it be a principall and most holy Institution yet hath it Limits as all things else have We see wheresoever in a manner they find in the Scriptures The Word spoken of they expound it of Preaching They have made it in a manner of the Essence of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to have a Sermon precedent They have in a sort annihilated the use of Liturgies and Formes of Divine Service Although the House of God be denominated of the Principall Domus Orationis A House of Prayer and not a House of Preaching As for the Life of the good Monks and Hermits in the Primitive Church I know they will condemne a Man as half a Papist if he should maintain them as other then Prophane because they heard no Sermons In the mean time what Preaching is and who may be said to Preach they move no Question But as far as I see every man that presumeth to speak in Chair is accounted a Preacher But I am assured that not a few that call hotly for a Preaching Ministery deserve to be the First themselves that should be expelled All which Errours and Misproceedings they do fortifie and intrench by an addicted Respect to their own Opinions And an Imp●●ience to hear Contradiction or Argument yea I know some of them that that would think it a Tempting of God to hear or read what may be said against them As if there could be A Quod bonum est tenete without an Omnia probate going before This may suffice to offer unto themselves a Thought and Consideration whether In these things they do well or no And to correct and asswage the Partiality of their Followers For as for any Man that shall hereby enter into a Contempt of their Ministery it is but his own Hardness of Hart. I know the work of Exhortation doth chiefly rest upon these Men and they have Zeal and Hate of Sin But again let them take Heed that it be not true which one of their Adversaries said That they have but two small wants Knowledge and Love And so I conclude this Point The last Point touching the due Publishing and Debating of these Controversies needeth no long Speech This strange Abuse of Antiques and Pasquils hath been touched before So likewise I repeat that which I said That a Character of Love is more proper for Debates of this Nature then that of Zeal As for all direct or indirect Glaunces or Levels at Mens Persons they were ever in these Causes disallowed Lastly whatsoever be pretended the People is no meet Arbitrator but rather the quiet modest and private Assemblies and Conferences of the Learned Qui apud Incapacem loquitur non disceptat sed calumniatur The Presse and Pulpit would be freed and discharged of these Contentions Neither Promotion on the one Side nor Glory and Heat on the other Side ought to continue those Challenges and Cartells at the Crosse and other Places But rather all Preachers especially such as be of good temper and have Wisdome with Conscience ought to inculcate and beat upon a Peace Silence and Surseance Neither let them fear Solons Law which compelled in Factions every particular Person to range himself on the one side Nor yet the fond Calumny of Neutrality But let them know that is true which is said by a wise Man That Neuters in Contentions are either better or worse then either Side These things have I in all sincerity and simplicity set down touching the Controversies which now trouble the Church of England And that without all Art and Insinuation And therfore not like to be gratefull to either Part. Notwithstanding I trust what hath been said shall find a Correspondence in their minds which are not embarqued in Partiality And which love the Whole better then a Part. Wherefore I am not out of hope that it may do good At the least I shall not repent my self of the Meditation FINIS IN HAPPY MEMORY OF ELIZABETH QUEEN of ENGLAND OR A COLLECTION OF THE FELICITIES OF Queen Elizabeth Written by his Lordship in Latin AND Englished by the Publisher QVeen Elizabeth both in her Naturall Endowments and her Fortune was Admirable amongst Women and Memorable amongst Princes But this is no Subject for the Pen of a meer Scholler or any such Cloistred Writer For these Men are eager in their Expressions but shallow in their Judgements And perform the Schollers part well but transmit Things but unfaithfully to Posterity Certainly it is a Scienc● belonging to Statesmen and to such as sit at the Helmes of great Kingdoms and have been acquainted with the weight and Secrets of Civil Business to handle this matter dextrously Rare in all Ages ha●h been the Raign of a Woman More rare the Felicity of a Woman in her Raign But most rare a Permanency and Lasting joyned with that Felici●y As for this Lady she raigned Four and Fourty years compleat and yet she did not survive her Felicity Of this Felicity I am purposed to say somewhat yet without any Excursion into Praises For Praises are the Tribute of Men but Felicity the Gift of God Fi●st I reckon it as a part of her Felicity that she was advanced to the Regal Throne from a Private Fortune For this is ingenerate in the Natu●e and Opinions of Men to ascribe that to the greatest Fel●city which is not counted upon and cometh unlooked for But this is not that I intend It is this Princes that are trained up in their Fath●rs Courts and to an immediate and Apparent Hope of Succession do get this by the Tendernesse and remisseness of their Education that they become commonly lesse capable and lesse Tempera●e in their Affections And therefo●e you shall find those to have been the ablest and most acc●m●lished Kings

hath proved Concluded as the Spaniards are great Waiters upon Time ground their Plots deep upon two Points The one to profess an extraordinary Patronage Defence of the Roman Religion making account thereby to have Factions in both Kingdoms In England a Faction directly against the State In France a Faction that did consent indeed in Religion with the King and therefore at first shew should seem unproper to make a Party for a Forreiner But he foresaw well enough that the King of France should be forced to the end to retain Peace and Obedience to yeeld in some things to those of the Religion which would undoubtedly alienate the Fiery and more violent sort of Papists Which Preparation in the People added to the Ambition of the Family of Guise which he nourished ●or an Instrument would in the end make a Party for him against the State as since it proved and mought well have done long before As may well appear by the Mention of League and Associations which is above 25. years old in France The other Point he concluded upon was That his Low-Countries was the aptest place both for Ports and Shipping in respect of England And for Sci●uation in respect of France having goodly Frontier Townes upon that Realm And joyning also upon Germany whereby they might receive in at Peasure any Forces of Almaines To annoy and offend either Kingdom The Impediment was the Inclination of the People which receiving a wonderfull Commodity of Trades out of both Realmes especially of England And having been in ancient League and Confederacy with our Nation And having been also Homagers unto ●rance He knew would be in no wise disposed to either War Whereupon he resolved to reduce them to a Martiall Government Like unto that which he had established in Naples and Millain upon which suppression of their Liberties ensued the Defection of those Provinces And about the same time the Reformed Religion found ent●ance in the same Countries So as the King enflamed with the Resistance he found in the first Part of his Plots And also because he mought not dispense with his other Principle in yielding to any Toleration of Religion And withall expecting a shorter work of it then he found Became passionatly bent to Reconquer those Countries Wherein he hath consumed infinite Treasure and Forces And this is the true Cause if a Man will look into it that hath made the King of Spain so good a Neigbbour Namely that he was so entangled with the Wars of the Low-Countries as he could not intend any other Enterprise Besides in Enterprizing upon Italy he doubted first the Displeasure of the See of Rome with whom he meant to run a Course of strait Conjunction Also he doubted it might invite the Turk to return And for Germany he had a fresh Example of his Father who when he had annexed unto the Dominions which he now possesseth the Empire of Almaign neverthelesse sunck in that Enterprize whereby he perceived that the Nation was of too strong a Composition for him to deal withall Though not long since by practise he could have been contented to snatch up in the East the Countrey of Emden For Portugal first the Kings thereof were good Sons to the See of Rome Next he had no Colour of Quarrel or pretence Thirdly they were Officious unto him yet i● you will believe the Genuese who otherwise writeth much to the Honour and Advantage of the Kings of Spain It seemeth he had a good mind to make himself a way into that Kingdom seeing that for that purpose as he reporteth he did artificially nourish the yong King S●bastian in the Voyage of Affrick expecting that overthrow which followed As for his Intention to warr upon the In●idels and Turks it maketh me think what Francis Guicciardiue a wise writer of History speaketh of his great Grand● Father Making a Judgement of him as Historiographers use That he did alwayes mask and vail his Appetites with a Demonstration of a Devout and Holy Intention to the Advancement of the Church and the Publick Good His Father also when he received Advertisement of the taking of the French King prohibited all Ringings and Bonfires and other Tokens of Joy and said Those were to be reserved for Victories upon Infidels On whom he meant never to warre Many a Cruzada hath the Bishop of Rome granted to him and his Predecessours upon that Colour Which all have been spent upon the Effusion of Christian Bloud And now this year the Levies of Germans which should have been made under hand for France were coloured with the pretence of Warr upon the Turk Which the Princes of Germany descrying not onely brake the Levies but threatned the Commissioners to hang the next that should offer the like Abuse So that this Form of Dissembling is Familiar and as it were Hereditary to the King of Spain And as for his Succours given to the French King against the Protestants he could not chuse but accompany the Pernicious Counsels which still he gave to the French Kings of breaking their Edicts and admitting of no Pacification but pursuing their Subjects with Mortall Warre with some Offer of Aides which having promised he could not but in some small Degree perform whereby also the Subject of France namely the violent Papist was enured to depend upon Spain And so much for the King of Spaines proceedings towards other States Now for ours And first touching the Point wherein he char●●th us to be the Authours of Troubles in Scotland and France It will appear to any that have been well enformed of the Memo●i●s of these Affaires That the Troubles of those Kingdomes were indeed chiefly kindled by one and the same Family of the Guise A Family as was partly touched before as particularly d●voted now for many years together to Spain as the Order of the I●sui●es is This House of Guise ●aving of late years extraordinarily flourished in the eminent Ver●ue of a few Persons whose Ambition neverthelesse was nothing inferiour to their vertue But being of a House notwithstanding which the Princes of the Bloud of France reckoned but as strangers Aspired to a Greatness more then Civill and proportionable to their Cause wheresoever they had Authority And accordingly under Colour of Consanguinity and Religion they brought into Scotland in the year 1559 and in the Absence of the King and Queen French Forces in great numbers whereupon the Ancient Nobility of that Realm seeing the imminent danger of Reducing that Kingdome under the Tyranny of Strangers did pray according to the good Intelligence between the two Crowns h●r Majesties Neigh ●ourly ●orces And so it is true that the Action being very Just Honourable her Majesty undertook it expelled the Strangers and restored the Nobility to their Degrees and the State to Peace After when Certain Noble-Men of Scotland of the same Faction of ●u●se had during the Minority of the King possessed themselves of his Person to the end to abuse his Authority

many wayes And namely to make a Breach between Scotland and England her Majesties Forces were again in the year 1582. by the Kings best and truest Servants sought and required And with the Forces of her Ma●esty prevailed so far as to be possessed of the Castle of Edenborough the principall part of that Kingdome which neverthelesse her Majesty incontinently with all Honour and Sincerity restored After she had put the King into good and faithfull Hands And so ever since in all the Occasions of Intestine Troubles whereunto that Nation hath been ever subject she hath performed unto the King all possible good Offices and such as he doth with all good Affection acknowledge The same House of Cuise under Colour of Alliance during the Raign of Francis the second and by the Support and pract●●● of the Queen Mother who desiring to retain the Regency under her own Hands during the Minority of Charles the ninth used those of ●uise as a Counterpoise to the Princes of the Bloud obtained also great Authority in the Kingdome of France whereupon having raised and moved Civill Warrs under pre●ence of Religion But indeed to enfeeble and depresse the Ancient Nobility of that Realm The contrary Part being compounded of the Bloud Royall and the Greatest Officers of the ●rown opposed themselves onely against their Insolency And to their Aides called in her Majesties Forces giving them for security the Town of New-Haven which neverthelesse when as afterwards having by the Reputation of her Majesties Confederation made their Peace in Effect as they would themselves They would without observing any Conditions that had passed have had it back again Then indeed it was held by force and so had been long but for the great Mortality which it pleased God to send amongst our Men. After which time so far was her Majesty from seeking to sowe or kindle New Troubles As continually by the Sollicitation of her Embassadours she still perswaded with the Kings both Charles the 9th and Hen. the 3d to keep and observe their Edicts of Pacification and to preserve their Authority by the Union of their Subjects which Counsell if it had been as happily followed as it was prudently and sincerely given France had been at this day a most Flourishing Kingdome which is now a Theater of Misery And now in the end after that the Ambitious Practises of the same House of Guise had grown to that Ripeness that gathering further strength upon the weakness and Misgovernment of the said King Hen. 3d He was fain to execute the Duke of Guise without Ceremony at Bloys And yet neverthelesse so many Men were embarqued and engaged in that Conspiracy as the Flame thereof was nothing asswaged But contrarywise that King Hen. grew distressed so as he was enforced to implore the Succours of England from her Majesty Though no way interessed in that Quarrell Nor any way obliged for any good offices she had received of that King yet she accorded the same Before the Arrivall of which Forces the King being by a sacrilegious Iacobine murthered in his Camp near Paris yet they went on and came in good time for the Assistance of the King which now raigneth The Justice of whose Quarrell together with the long continued Amity and good Intelligence which her Majesty had with him hath moved her Majesty from time to time to supply with great Aides And yet she never by any Demand urged upon him the putting into her Hands of any Town or Place So as upon this that hath been said let the Reader judge whether hath been the more Just and Honourable Proceeding And the more free from Ambition and Passion towards other States That of Spain or that of England Now let us examine the proceedings reciproque between themselves Her Majesty at her Comming to the Crown found her Realm entangled with the Wars of France and Scotland her nearest Neighbours which Wars were grounded onely upon the Spaniards Quarrell But in the pursuit of them had lost England the Town of Calice Which from the 21. year of King Edward 3 had been possessed by the Kings of England There was a meeting near Burdeaux towards the end of Queen Maries Raign between the Commissioners of France Spain and England and some Overture of Peace was made But broke off upon the Article of the Res●itution of Callice After Queen Maries Death the King of Spain thinking himself discha●ged of that Difficulty though in ho●our he was no lesse bound to it then before renewed the like Treaty wherein her Majesty concurred so as the Commissioners for the said Princes met at Chasteau Cambra●ssi near Cambray In the proceedings of which Treaty it is true that at the first the Commissioners of Spain for form and in Demonstration onely pretended to stand firm upon the Demand of Callice● but it was discerned indeed that the Kings Meaning was after ●ome Ceremonies and perfunctory Insisting thereupon to grow apart to a ●eace with the French excluding her Majesty And so to leave her to make her own Peace after her People Had made his Wars Which Covert Dealing being politickly looked into her Majesty had reason being newly invested in her Kingdom And of her own Inclination being affected to Peace To conclude the same with such Conditions as she mought And yet the King of Spain in his Dissimulation had so much Advantage as she was fain to do it in a Treaty apart with the Fr●nch whereby to one that is not informed of the Counsels and Treaties of State as they passed it should seem to be a voluntary Agreement of her Majesty whereto the King of Spain would not be party whereas indeed he left her no other choice And this was the first Assay or Earnest penny of that Kings good affection to her Majesty About the same time when the King was sollicited to renew such Treaties and Leagues as had passed between the two Crowns of Spain and England by the Lord Cobham sent unto him to acquaint him with the Death of Queen Mary And afterwards by Sir Thomas Challenor and Sir Thomas Chamberlain successively Embassadours Resident in his Low Countries Who had order divers times during their Charge to make Overtures thereof both unto the King and certain principall persons about him And lastly those former Motions taking no effect By Viscount Montacute and Sir Thomas Chamberlain sent unto Spain in the year 1560 no other Answer could be had or obtained of the King but that the Treaties did stand in as good Force to all Intents as new Ratification could make them An Answer strange at that time but very conformable to his Proceedings since which belike even then were closely smothered in his own Breast For had he not at that time some hidden Alienation of Mind and Design of an Enemy towards her Majesty So wise a King could not be ignorant That the Renewing and Ratifying of Treaties between Princes and States do adde great Life and Force both of Assurance to the parties themselves

no unity in Believing except it be entertained in worshipping Such as were the Controversies of the East and West Churches touching Images And such as are many of those between the Church of Rome and Vs As about the Adoration of the Sacrament and the like But we contend about Ceremonies and Things Indifferent About the Extern Pollicy and Government of the Church In which kind if we would but remember that the Ancient and True Bounds of Unity are One Faith One Baptism And not One Ceremony One Pollicy If we would observe the League amongst Christians that is penned by our Saviour He that is not against us is with us If we could but comprehend that Saying Differentiae Rituum commendant unitatem Doctrinae The Diversities of Ceremonies do set forth the unity of Doctrine And that Habet Religio quae sunt AEternitatis habet quae sunt Temporis Religion hath parts which belong to Eternity and parts which pertain to Time And if we did but know the vertue of silence and slowness to speak commended by Saint Iames Our Controversies of themselves would close up and grow toge●her But most especially if we would leave the Overweening and Turbulent Humours of these times And revive the blessed proceeding of the Apostles and Fathers of the Primitive Church which was in the like and greater Cases not to enter into Assertions and Positions but to deliver Counsels and Advises we should need no other Remedy at all Si eadem Con●ulis frater quae affirmas consulenti debetur Reverentia cum non debeatur Fides affirmanti Brother if that which you set down as an Assertion you would deliver by way of Advise There were Reverence due to your Counsell whereas Faith is not due to your Affirmation Saint Paul was content to speak thus Ego non Dominus I and not the Lord Et secundum Consilium meum According to my Counsell But now Me● do too lightly say Non ego sed Dominus Not I but the Lord yea and bind it with an Heavy Denunciation of his Judgements to terrifie the simple which have not sufficiently understood out of Salomon That the Causelesse Curse shall not come Therefore seeing the Accidents are they which breed the peril and not the Things themselves in their own Nature It is meet the Remedies be applyed unto them by Opening what it is on either part that keepeth the Wound Green And formalizeth both sides to a further Oppo●●tion and worketh an Indisposition in Mens minds to be reunited wherein no Accusation is pretended But I find in Reason that Peace is best built upon a Repetition of wrongs And in Example that the speeches which have been made by the wisest Men De Concordia Ordinum have not abstained from reducing to Memory the Extremities used on both parts So as it is true which is said Qui pacem tractat non is repetit Conditionibus Dissidiis is magis Ani●mos Hominum dulcedine pacis fallit quam aequitate componit And First of all it is more then Time that there were an End and surseance made of this Immodest and Deformed manner of Writing lately entertained whereby Matter of Religion is handled in the stile of the Stage Indeed bitter and earnest Writing must not hastily be condemned For Men cannot contend Coldly and without affection about Things which they hold Dear and Precious A Pollitick Man may write from his Brain without Touch and Sense of his Heart As in a Speculation that appertaineth not unto him But a Feeling Christian will expresse in his words a Character of Zeal or Love The latter of which as I could wish rather embraced being more proper for these Times yet is the Former warranted also by great Examples But to leave all Reverent and Religious Compassion towards Evils or Indignation towards Faults and to turn Religion into a Comedy or Satyre To search and rip up wounds with a Laughing Countenance To intermix Scripture and scurrility sometime in one Sentence Is a thing far from the devout Reverence of a Christian and scant beseeming the honest Regard of a sober Man Non est major Confusio quam Scrii Ioci There is no greater Confusion then the confounding of Iest and Earnest The Majesty of Religion and the Contempt and Deformity of things ridiculous are things as distant as things may be Two principall Causes have I ever known of Atheisme Curious Controversies and prophane Scoffing Now that these two are joyned in one no doubt that Sect will make no small Progression And here I do much esteem the Wisdome and Religion of that Bishop which replied to the first Pamphlet of this kind who remembred that a Fool was to be answered but not by becomming like unto him And considered the Matter which he handled and not the Person with whom he dealt Iob speaking of the Majesty and Gravity of a Iudge in himself saith If I did smile they believed it not As if h● should have said If I diverted or glanced upon Conceit of Mirth yet Mens Minds were so possessed with a Reverence of the Action in hand as they could not receive it Much more ought not this to be amongst Bishops and Divines disputing about Holy Things And therefore as much do I mislike the Invention of him who as it seemeth pleased himself in it as in no mean Pollicy That these Men are to be dealt withall at their own Weapons and pledg●d in their own Cup. This seemed to him as profound a Devise as when the Cardinall Sansovino counselled Iulius the second to encounter the Councell of Pisa with the Councell of Lateran Or as Lawfull a Challenge as Mr. Iewell made to confute the pretended Catholiques by the Fathers But those Things will not excuse the Imitation of Evill in another It should be contrariwise with us as Caesar said Nil malo quam eos similes esse sui Et me mei But now Dum de bonis contendimus de Malis consentimus While we Differ about good things we Resemble in evill Surely if I were asked of these Men who were the more to be blamed I should per case remember the Proverb That the second Blow maketh the Fray And the saying of an Obscure Fellow Qui replicat multiplicat He that replieth multiplieth But I would determine the Question with this Sentence Alter principium Malo dedit alter Modum abstulit By the ones Means we have a Beginning and by the other we shall have none End And truly as I do marvell that some of those Preachers which call for Reformation whom I am far from wronging so far as to joyn them with these Scoffers Do not publish some Declaration whereby they may satisfie the world that they dislike their Cause should be thus sollicited So I hope assuredly that my Lords of the Clergy have none Intelligence with this interlibelling But do altogether disallow that their Credit should be thus defended For though I observe in one of them many Glosses whereby the Man would

end And in this Case she continued but a few dayes So as it cannot be called the Last Act of her Life but the First step to her Death For as it is a Miserable Condition to see the Facultie● of our Body buried before us And to survive long after them So it is a Faire and Naturall Conclusion of our Life when the Senses are by little and little layd asleep that the Dissolution of the whole should immediatly follow I will adde one Thing more to make up the full Measure of her Felicity which is that she was not only most Happy in her own Person but in the Abilities and vertues of her Servants and Ministers For she was served by such Persons as I suppose this Island never brought forth the like before her Times Now when God beareth a love to Kings no doubt he raiseth up the Spirits of Wise Servants as a concurrent Blessing There are two faire Issues of her Happinesse born to her since her Death I conceive not lesse Glorious and Eminent then those she enjoyed a live The one of her Successour The other of her Memory For she hath gotten such a Successour who although for his Masculine Vertues and Blessing of Posterity and Addition of Territories he may be said to exceed her Greatnesse and somewhat to obscure it Notwithstanding he is most zealous of her Name and Glory And doth even give a Perpetuity to her Acts Considering both in the Choice of the Persons and in the Orders Institutions of the Kingdome he hath departed so little from her So as a Son could hardly succeed a Father with lesse Noise or Innovation As for her Memory it hath gotten such Life in the Mouths and Hearts of Men as that Envy being put out by her Death and her Fame lighted I cannot say whether the Felicity of her Life or the Felicity of her Memory be the greater For if perhaps there fly abroad any factious Fames of Her raised either by Discontented Persons or such as are averse in Religion which notwithstanding dare now scarce shew their Faces and are every where cryed down The same are neither true neither can they be long liv'd And for this cause especially have I made this Collection such as it is touching her Felicity and the Marks of Gods Favour towards Her That no malicious Person should dare to interpose a Curse where God hath given a Blessing Now if any Man shall alledge that against me which was once said to Caesar We see what we may admire but we would fain see what we can commend Certainly for my part I hold true Admiration to be the highest Degree of Commendation And besides such Felicities as we have recounted could not befall any Princesse but such an one as was extraordinarily supported and cherished by Gods Favour And had much in her own Person Rare Vertues to create and work out unto her self such a Fortune Notwithstanding I have thought good to insert something now concerning her Morall Part Yet only in those things which have ministred occasion to some Mallicious Tongues to traduce her This Queen as touching her Religion was Pious Moderate Constant and an Enemy to Novelty First for her Piety Though the same were most conspicuous in her Acts and the Form of her Government yet it was Pourtrayed also in the common Course of her Life and her daily Comportment Seldome would she be absent from Hearing Divine Service and other Duties of Religion either in her Chappell or in her Privy Closet In the reading of the Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers especially of Saint Augustine she was very Frequent She composed certain Prayers her self upon emergent occasions Whensoever she named God though it were in common discourse she would for the most part adde The Title of Maker saying God my Maker And compose both her Eyes and Countenance to a Submisnesse and Reverence This I have often my self observed being in her presence Now whereas some have divulged her unmindfulnesse of Mortality in that she would never endure any Mention either of her Age or Death it is most false For she would often and that many years before her Death with a great deal of Meeknesse professe that she found her self grown an old Woman And she would sometimes open her self what she liked best for an Inscription upon her Tombe Saying That she loved no pompous or vain-glorious Titles but would onely have a Line or two for her Memory wherein her Name and her Virginity and the years of her Raign and her Establishing of Religion and her Maintaining of Peace should be in the fewest words comprehended It is true that whilest she was in her vigorous years and able to bear Children if at any time she were moved to declare her Successour she would make Answer That she would never endure to see her winding sheet before her Eyes And yet notwithstanding some few years before her death one day when she was in a deep Meditation and as it may be ghessed in that of her Mortality One that might be bold said unto her Madam there are divers Offices and great places in the state which you keep too long void She arose up in some displeasure and said I am sure my Office will not be long void As for her Moderateness in Religion I shall seem to be at a stand in regard of the Severe Lawes made against her Subjects of the Romish Religion Notwithstanding that which I shall say is no more then what I know for certain and diligently observed Most certain it is that it was the Firm Resolution of this Princesse not to offer any violence to Consciences But then on the other Side not to suffer the State of her Kingdome to be ruined under pretence of Conscience and Religion Out of this Fountain she concluded First That to allow Freedome and Toleration of two Religions by publick Authority in a Nation Fierce and Warlike And that would easily fall from Dissention of Minds to Siding and Blowes would bring inevitable Ruin to this Kingdome Again in the Newnesse of her Raign when there was a generall distrust she singled out some of the Bishops of the most Turbulent and Factious Spirits and commi●ted them to free Custody And this not without the warrant of Former Lawes As for the Rest either of the Cleargy or Laity she did not ransack their Consciences by any Sev●re Inqu●sition but rather secured them by a gracious Connivency And this was the State of Things at the first Neither did she depart from this Clemency when the Excommunication of Pius Quin●us came Thund●ing against her which might both justly have provoked her and have ministred occasion to new Courses But howsoever she followed her Royall Nature still For as a wise Lady and of a high Courage she was not a whit terrified at the Roaring of a Bull Being well assured of her Peoples Love and Fidelity towards her As also of the Disability of the Popish Faction