Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	christian_a	church_n	world_n	5,052	5	4.5521	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63490	A True copy of the journal of the High Court of Justice for the tryal of K. Charles I as it was read in the House of Commons and attested under the hand of Phelps, clerk to that infamous court / taken by J. Nalson Jan. 4, 1683 : with a large introduction.	Charles I, King of England, 1600-1649, defendant.; Phelps, John, fl. 1636-1666.; Nalson, John, 1638?-1686.	1684 (1684)	Wing T2645; ESTC R5636	141,696	216

will clear me of it I will not I am in Charity God forbid that I should lay it on the Two Houses of Parliament there is no necessity of either I hope they are free of this Guilt For I do believe that ill Instruments between them and me have been the chief Cause of all this Bloodshed So that by way of speaking as I find my self clear of this I hope and pray God that they may too Yet for all this God forbid that I should be so ill a Christian as not to say that God's Judgments are just upon me many times he does pay Justice by an unjust Sentence that is ordinary I will only say this That an unjust Sentence that I suffered to take effect is punished now by an unjust Sentence upon me That is So far I have said to shew you that I am an Innocent Man Now for to shew you that I am a good Christian I hope there is a good Man that will bear me witness that I have forgiven all the World and even those in particular that have been the chief causers of my Death Who they are God knows I do not desire to know I pray God forgive them But this is not all my Charity must go further I wish that they may repent for indeed they have committed a great Sin in that Particular I pray God with St. Stephen that this be not laid to their Charge Nay not only so but that they may take the right way to the Peace of the Kingdom For my Charity commands me not only to forgive particular men but my Charity commands me to endeavour to the last gasp the Peace of the Kingdom So Sirs I do wish with all my Soul and I do hope there is some here will carry it further that they may endeavour the Peace of the Kingdom Now Sirs I must shew you both how you are out of the way and will put you in a way First You are out of the way For certainly all the way you ever have had yet as I could find by any thing is in the way of Conquest Certainly this is an ill way for Conquest Sir in my opinion is never just except there be a good just Cause either for matter of wrong or just Title and then if you go beyond it the first Quarrel that you have to it that makes it unjust at the end that was just at the first But if it be only matter of Conquest then it is a great Robbery as a Pyrate said to Alexander the Great That he was the great Robber he was but a petty Robber And so Sir I do think the way that you are in is much out of the way Now Sir for to put you in the way believe it you will never do right nor God will never prosper you until you give God his Due the King his Due that is My Successors and the People their Due I am as much for Them as any of you You must give God his Due by Regulating rightly his Church according to his Scripture which is now out of Order For to set you in a way particularly now I cannot but only this a National Synod freely Called freely Debating among themselves must settle this when that every Opinion is freely and clearly heard For the King indeed I will not Then turning to a Gentleman that touched the Axe he said Hurt not the Axe that may hurt me For the King The Laws of the Land will clearly instruct you for that therefore because it concerns my own Particular I only give you a Touch of it For the People And truly I desire their Liberty and Freedom as much as any body whomsoever but I must tell you that their Liberty and Freedom consists in having of Government those Laws by which their Life and their Goods may be most their own It is not for having share in Government Sir that is nothing pertaining to them a Subject and a Sovereign are clear different things And therefore until they do that I mean that you do put the People in that Liberty as I say certainly they will never enjoy themselves Sirs it was for this that now I am come here If I would have given way to an Arbitrary way for to have all Laws changed according to the power of the Sword I needed not to have come here and therefore I tell you and I pray God it be not laid to your Charge that I am the MARTYR of the People In troth Sirs I shall not hold you much longer for I will only say this to you That in truth I could have desired some little time longer because that I would have put this that I have said in little more order and a little better digested than I have done and therefore I hope you will excuse me I have delivered my Conscience I pray God that you do take those courses that are best for the good of the Kingdom and your own Salvation Then the Bishop said Though it be very well known what your Majesties Affections are to the Protestant Religion yet it may be expected that You should say somewhat for the Worlds satisfaction in that Particular Whereupon the King replied I thank you very heartily My Lord for that I had almost forgotten it In troth Sirs My Conscience in Religion I think is very well known to all the World and therefore I declare before you all That I die a Christian according to the Profession of the Church of England as I found it left me by my Father and this honest man I think will witness it Then turning to the Officers He said Sirs Excuse me for this same I have a good Cause and I have a gracious God I will say no more Then to Col. Hacker he said Take care that they do not put me to pain And Sir this and it please you But a Gentleman coming near the Axe the King said Take heed of the Axe pray take heed of the Axe And to the Executioner he said I shall say but very short Prayers and when I thrust out my hands Then he called to the Bishop for his Cap and having put it on asked the Executioner Does my Hair trouble you Who desired him to put it all under his Cap which as he was doing by the help of the Bishop and the Executioner he turned to the Bishop and said I have a good Cause and a gracious God on my side The Bishop said There is but one Stage more which though turbulent and troublesome yet it is a very short one you may consider it will soon carry you a very great way it will carry you from Earth to Heaven and there you shall find to your great Joy the Prize you hasten to a Crown of Glory The King adjoyns I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown where no disturbance can be no disturbance in the world Bishop You are exchanged from a Temporal to an Eternal Crown A good

Papishes as they call them as if it had been true beyond all contradiction I have no design to turn Advocate for the Romish Religion and profess my self to have a most deep detestation and abhorrence for Sanguinary Traiterous Seditious Disloyal and King-killing or deposing Principles in any Religion or Perswasion whatsoever and do firmly believe that That Religion which holds justifies or tolerates such Principles is so far Erroneous False and Damnable But this being a perfect piece of Leger-de-main purposely calculated to deceive the Common-people into a good opinion of the worst and most dangerous Enemies of the Monarchy the Dissenters and thereby to enable them still to spread the Venom of their Principles under the Vail of Innocence and to make this Innocence appear by transferring the Guilt of their former Actions upon others I think it of so mischievous Consequence that it ought to be obviated and the falshood detected and made evident by the Beams of most irrefragable Truth And therefore for ever to silence all these foolish and frivolous Arts and Palliations and to take away the Fig-leaves which these guilty sinners have so Artificially patch'd together and to shew to the whole World from their Own Memoirs that it was the very real Presbyterians Independents and other Sectaries their Associates and no other who were actually guilty of the whole Scene of this horrible Murder of the King The Orignal Journal of the whole proceedings of that detestable Murder and the previous Tryal which was drawn up by the Order of the Regicides and presented then to the Commons-House and there publickly read and approved for a true Record and which is attested under the Hand of Phelps the Clerk to that pretended High Court of Justice having by pure accident shall I call it or particular Providence come to my hands and having the opportunity to take a true Copy or Transcript of it I thought my self bound in Conscience by the Duty which I owe to my King and the Peace and happiness of my Country to make it publick that if it were possible all true English-men might be made sensible of the horrid Guilt and danger of such Men and such Principles and so far consult their own and the Interest of their Posterity as to endeavour such a true and thorough Reformation as can only make the present and future Ages happy which can never be hoped for so long as the Whoredoms and Witchcrafts of this Painted Jezabel of the Old Presbyterian and Independent Cause are continued and cherished among us And most assuredly it is the Duty of every good Christian and Loyal Subject to contribute the utmost of his endeavours to suppress the Growth of such dangerous Principles as drive men so furiously headlong with the pretences of Religion to the most daring and desperate Extremities of Treason and Rebellion and to the very Precipice of Damnation I do not herein pretend to exceed the Limits of a private Person or hereby foolishly to undertake to prescribe Measures to the Government in the Management of this Important Affair but within my own Sphere I cannot but think my self and all other private Persons according to their Capacity Opportunities and Power under an indispensable Obligation to oppose and indeavour to stop the Impetuous Torrent of these wicked bloody and unpeaceful Opinions and Principles which have once before drowned this Nation in Bloodshed and Misery and who by their swelling and breaking over all the banks of Law Duty and Obedience threaten us with continual danger and apprehensions of a more cruel and dreadful Inundation and I esteem my self warranted to oppose them by their Example since the diligence assiduity and restless endeavours with which they do to a single man of the Party pursue their Ends and Wicked Interest makes it absolutely the Duty as well as Interest of all such as are Loyal who love their Country Church and King as heartily unanimously and zealously to make head against them and endeavour to crush this Cockatrice in the Egg which otherwise will most certainly disclose a fiery flying Serpent And I cannot see any Expedient so probable to succeed as the exposing them naked and stript of their Artificial Trappings Painting and Counterfeit Gems of Sanctity and Innocence with which they are wont to impose upon the Minds of credulous and easie People I shall only therefore bring them to be surveyed by the light of Nature Reason Interest and Religion and that I may do them the most Impartial Justice shew them to the World in the Glasses of their own making and if there they do not like the Figure and Image which they make they ought only to quarrel their own deformities which will not in any Glass except that of their own flattering and false Opinion afford them any Shape less Monstrous and Ugly And I verily perswade my self that were the Common-People of this Nation throughly instructed by those whose Duty it is to perform that Charitable Office in the black Consequences which necessarily naturally and unavoidably follow the Principles of those Leading Men of the Separation and made sensible how much they are the Enemies to our Peace and Happiness both here and hereafter even Nature and Humanity would teach Men to abandon them as the most dangerous Cheats and cruel Impostors and they who now admire the Beauty of these Painted Sepulchres the Seditious Meeting Houses were they aware of the Devil's Trap-Doors of Rebellion and Damnation which are there planted would be more cautious of crouding into them And were it possible as I think it is easie if it were vigorously indeavoured to convince the deluded Vulgar who have these Mens Persons in such admiration and who are so apt to be inchanted with the Songs of these bewitching Syrens that under all those fair Words and sanctimonious Pretences this Whining about Gospel Liberty and Persecution for Conscience this Puking at decent Ceremonies and more decent and beautiful Order and Government this bellowing against Antichrist Popery and Prelacy there is all this while concealed the Ruine of their Country the Destruction of the Government the Subversion of the Laws Sedition Tumults Insurrections Murder Fire and Sword Slavery and Infamy and at the last Eternal Damnation and endless Torments certainly they would not only forsake but detest and abhor those Impostors and Deceivers Now all this is as demonstratively true as to the matter of former Fact and future Consequence as God is true and just and as that is True and Canonical Scripture which from the Mouth of Gods infallible Spirit assures us without any Limitation or Reservation without any Exception or Dispensation That whosoever resist the Higher Powers resist the Ordinance of God and shall receive to themselves Damnation Now if Rebellion be resisting the Higher Powers as certainly if that be not nothing is and if we be able to prove those of the Separation to a single Man of them Guilty of it either in Fact or in Principles or in