Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	discipline_n	government_n	3,314	5	6.9877	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44227	Vindiciæ Carolinæ, or, A defence of Eikon basilikē, the portraicture of His Sacred Majesty in his solitudes and sufferings in reply to a book intituled Eikonoklastes, written by Mr. Milton, and lately re-printed at Amsterdam.	Hollingworth, Richard, 1639?-1701.; Wilson, John, 1626-1696.	1692 (1692)	Wing H2505; ESTC R13578	84,704	160

but Repetition and therefore soon answered And truly here he is better than his Word for either he gives it no Answer at all or where he does it is so perfunctory that he only justifies the Proverb of Canis ad Nilum As witness that Repetition of which he shews not one and for the Matter which is full and unanswerable he mumbles it as a Cow does Thistles but dares not chew it for fear of pricking his Chops But we 'll see what he says After an abusive and strange apprehension of Covenants as if Men pawn'd their Souls to them with whom they Covenant he digresses to plead for Bishops first from the antiquity of their Possessions here since the first Plantation of Christianity in this Isle next from an universal Prescription since the Apostles till this last Century But what saith he avails the most primitive Antiquity against the plain Sense of Scripture which if the last Century have best follow'd ought in our Esteem to be first And yet it has been often prov'd c. that Episcopacy crept not up into on Order above Presbyters till many years after the Apostles were deceas'd Abusive he said But wherein For neither is it the way of his Majesty's Pen nor can any forc'd Interpretation bring the words to any thing like it For if the Contrivers and Imposers of the solemn League and Covenant did not reciprocally pawn their Souls to each other they call'd God as a Witness and Avenger of the Perfidy When Laban and Jacob made a Covenant between them they set up a Pillar and a heap of Stones And Laban said to Jacob Behold this Heap Gen. 31. v. 51 52 53. and behold this Pillar be they a Witness betwixt me and thee and the God of our Fathers judge betwixt us And Jacob Swore by the Fear of his Father Isaac i. e. By that God whom Isaac his Father fear'd whereas Laban on the other hand was an Idolater And yet the Oath was Religious and binding for it was not the God of Nahor or the Pillar and heap of Stones that made any thing in it but the true God that was represented by it Not that I say that the Covenant was Religious or obligatory to any but the exacters of it as I shall shew presently but to take notice of that Saying of our Answerer As if Men pawn'd their Souls to them with whom they Covenant Which in other words make this As if any Man should be so ridiculous as to believe the Houses who knew the Scots were afraid of being left in the lurch and therefore would not come in without it meant any thing more by it than to serve a turn And truly so far he was in the right for there is a great deal of difference between a Heart-Oath and a Lip-Oath a Book-blowing as the Scots call it and the Tragedian more expressively Jurata lingua est mente juravi nihil Nor have I sooner got over one if than another lies in my way The King saith he pleads for the Bishops from their Antiquity c. But what avails Antiquity against Scripture which if the last Century have best follow'd ought in our esteem to be first But if they have not best follow'd it what then And if he has not prov'd that they have so done as he has not I say he has said nothing to the purpose But the matter concerns Churchmen and I leave it to them with this for my self St. Paul left Titus in Crete Tit. 1.5 That saith he thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting and ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee And when the Presbyters shall shew half that Authority for Jurisdiction and Ordination I shall begin to believe there may be something in it and that the Words Bishop and Presbyter are but Synonoma's though in the mean time I am and shall be Nullius in verba The next thing he takes notice of is that His Majesty says He is unsatisfied with many Passages in the Covenant some referring to himself with very dubious and dangerous limitations for binding Men by Oath and Covenant to the Reformation of Church Discipline and Government To which our Answerer says First those Limitations were not more dangerous to him than he to our Liberty and Religion and cunningly slips the Cart before the Horse for well he knew Religion was but the Pretence whereas the design was under the name of Liberty to warrant Licentiousness and therefore it was but good Manners that the Hand-maid waited on the Mistress Next that which was there vowed to be cast out of the Church an Antichristian Hierarchy which God had not planted but Ambition and Corruption had brought in Apoint not to be argued but of Moral Necessity to be forthwith done And whether the King had not ground enough for the words before let any Man judge They Swear to endeavour to preserve the Rights and Privileges of Parliament Art 3. c. without the least Limitation or so much as stating what they are where by the way we may note that the Privileges of Parliament whatever they be have got the Precedency of His Majesty's Person But when they come to the King they swear to endeavour to preserve and defend the King's Person and Authority in the Preservation and Defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms i. e. So long as they shall say he defends them Which is not so much as they Swear to do for any ordinary Person that enters into this Covenant Art 6. whom they vow absolutely to assist and defend but here they undertake no more than barely to endeavour to defend the King and that with a Limitation Now suppose the certain safety of the King's Person came in competition with any of their real or pretended Privileges Which was to have the Preference Or that the Houses having gotten all the Power into their Hands should have said as they did afterwards that he did not preserve and defend the true Religion and the Liberties of the Kingdoms might they not also have said We are free of this Oath and so rather suffer his Person to perish or actually to destroy him than violate a Privilege For my part I take them to be doubts well worth the solving And for the dangerous part of it there is an Article in it Art 4. To bring all Delinquents to such Punishment as the Supream Judicatories of both Kingdoms respectively shall judge convenient Nor was that Article put in to no purpose Milton 202. and Cromwel nick'd his business with it when to bring on the Commons to those Votes of Non-addresses he told them they were obliged by the Covenant to bring all Delinquents to Punishment And I saith he impeach the King as the grand Delinquent of the Nation And now tell me any Man where the King judg'd amiss when he said some Passages in this Covenant referr'd to himself with very doubtful and dangerous

his Children and of a Master in rewarding his Servants And so what between pretended want of Instructions and the twenty days spun out to nothing the Treaty broke off as well it might with them that came prepar'd not to yield any thing However his Majesty's Commissioners desir'd an Enlargement of time but it would not be granted And to Salve it on their side our Answerer runs to his common Topick That the King had nothing no not so much as Honour but of the People's Gift yet talks on equal terms with the grand Representative of that People for whose sake he was made King And is one of the modestest Expressions of his whole Book and which I have so fully answer'd before Chap. 6 that I need not add any thing farther to it here CHAP. XIX Vpon the various Events of the War Victories and Defeats THIS Chapter relates nothing to the History of those times and is a brief but pathetical Account of his Majesty under those varieties of Events wherein he acquitted himself Justum tenacem propositi virum Quem Civium ardor prava jubentium Mente non quassit solida And verified his own Words That he wish'd no greater advantage by the War than to bring his Enemies to Moderation and his Friends to Peace As also those other That if he had yielded less he had been oppos'd less and if he had denied more he had been more obey'd And if the Word of a King may not pass in his own Case take in all Histories of him and you 'll find him so little made up of Accidents or subject to them that he sacrific'd his Particular to the advantage of the whole and more regarded an honest Life than a safe one Nor has our Accuser's railing given me Ground to take notice of him in this Chapter other than when he says His Lips acquitted the Parliament not long before his Death of all the Blood spilt in this War which also he had said before and to what I then urg'd I only add this now That His Majesty at the Treaty of the Isle of Wight seeing the unreasonableness of their demands made some Queries upon them of which this was one See tho King's Book in Folio Fol. 608. Whether his acknowledgement of the Blood that had been spilt in the late Wars nothing being yet concluded or binding could be urg'd so far as to be made use of by way of Evidence against him or any of his Party And whether this be an acquitting the Parliament for other I am sure there is none I appeal to any Man His Majesty came as near the Wind as with Honour he could till finding at last that nothing would do as stripp'd as he was of every thing but his Vertue and the Freedom of his Mind he justified to the World that however he was within the common Chance he was not under the Dominion of Fortune CHAP. XX. Vpon the Reformations of the Times I Need not tell my Reader the Argument of this Chapter the Title speaks it and As his Majesty was well pleas'd with this Parliament's first Intentions to reform what the indulgence of Times and corruption of Manners might have deprav'd so saith he I am sorry to see how little regard was had to the good Laws establish'd and the Religion settled which ought to be the first Rule and Standard of Reforming But our Answerer will by no means hear those two Bugbears of Novelty and Perturbation an Expression his Majesty uses in this Chapter the ill looks and noise of which have been frequently set on foot to divert and dissipate the Zeal of Reformers A● it was the Age before in Germany by the Pope and by our Papists here in Edward the Sixth's time Whereas Christ foretold us his Doctrine would 〈◊〉 be receiv'd without the Censure of Novelty and many great Commotions But with his Favour he neither shews us that this Parliament had the same Authority which our Saviour had or that they proceeded his way For besides that He came not to destroy the Law Mat. 5.17 but to fullfil it in all Righteousness he commanded this to his Disciples Habete sal in vobis Mar. 9.50 pacem inter vos Have Salt i. e. Wisdom in your selves and Peace one with another And as he knew God was the God of Order not of Confusion he left the Care of his Church to his Disciples but no where that I find to reform it by Tumults or under the Face of Religion to destroy the Power of it as must inevitably follow when against known settled establish'd Laws Men shall take upon them to reform by the Lump without discerning what things are intermingled like Tares among Wheat Lord ●●●on which have their Roots so wrapp'd and entangled together that the one cannot be pull'd up without endangering the other and such as are mingled but as Chaff and Corn which need but a Fan to sift and sever them And that his Majesty was not averse to a due Reformation appears in this when he says I have offer'd to put all differences in Church-affairs and Religion to the free Consultation of a Synod or Convocation rightly chosen So offered saith our Answerer all Popish Kings heretofore And let it be produced what good hath been done by Synods from the first times of Reformation And truly if he knows none I offer none Though methinks he ought not in Gratitude to have forgotten their own Assembly of Divines Men of unknown Parts and so Instrumental to the carrying on of the Cause that if they had not kept blowing the Coals the Fire would have quickly gone out of it self But what talk we of Gratitude to a Man of those Times the Fish was caught and what more use of the Net And yet if the Houses had with the King submitted those differences to a Synod rightly chosen where had been the hurt Flannel-Weavers I must confess are not the best at making Love yet we have an old Proverb fabrilia fabri Every Man in his own Trade And who more fit to judge of Church-matters than Churchmen But this had been to uphold an Antichristian Hierarchy and what need that when scarce a Man of our Reformers but was a Church by himself C●mb Brit. Fol. 509. And why might not they bid as fair now as the Army of God and the Church in King John's time the Holy League in France the Sword of the Lord John Knox and Gideon in Scotland John of Leyden and Knipperdoling in Germany Tantum Religio potuit That successful Pretence of Mankind Religion Absalom mask'd his Rebellion with a Vow at Hebron and Herod his design of Murther with another of Worship CHAP. XXI Vpon His Majesty's Letters taken and divulg'd I Have heard of a malicious Stab that contrary to the intent of the hand that gave it open'd an Impostume And such was the barbarity of this Action of which also it may be as truly said Vna eademque manus