Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	great_a	king_n	majesty_n	3,331	5	6.0086	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63246	The speech of Charles Trinder, recorder of Gloucester at his entrance upon that office, January the 8th, 1687/8.	Trinder, Charles.	1688 (1688)	Wing T2283; ESTC R37902	12,670	19

Subjects Liberty and Property received Confirmation from the glorious Ancestors of our present Reigning Monarch What Spot of Ground is there thrô the whole circumference of the Earth where the Subject lives so free so plentiful and so secure from any sort of Oppression as in this our truly fortunate Island What man so low as not offending the Laws to need fear his most potent Neighbour Again What Nobleman so Great as to dare either by force or treachery to attempt either upon the Royal Authority or Publick Peace Lastly What Throne so fix'd and unmoveable as Ours Since the Royal Prerogatives are so inalienable from the Crown that even the most solemn Acts of our Kings when found inconsistent with their personal safety and Government and the good and safety of their Subjects are of no manner of force to restrain the exercise of their Regal Power This appears by the King's Declaration in the 15th of Edward 3d Printed with the Statutes and by many other instances which might be produced After such Foundations laid after such regular and well-polish'd Architecture in the whole Frame of this our happy Government when moreover our Kings have at their Call the most August Senate in the World whose Duty it is to strengthen the Hands of the Soveraign by their Counsels and the Kingdom 's Treasure as Emergencies arise How comes it to pass that we have seen and felt effects not only far short but even contrary to such glorious Causes to pass by our ceasing now for a long time to advance our Nations Glory by Acquisitions abroad tho' we have not wanted Princes of great Abilities and Inclinations that way How comes it to pass that we have with much difficulty conserved our own from Forreign Encroachments Nay lastly how has it come to pass that we have suffered such fatal Convulsions at home among our selves by which the whole Frame of our Government hath been shaken in pieces nothing to be seen but Horrour and Confusion nothing to be expected but utter Ruine and Destruction To answer these important Queries thô private Malice Pride Lust and Avarice be the immediate incentives of all who are Authors or Fomenters of all Civil Dissension yet manifest it is that this so great decay from the Ancient vigour of our Government and the many Difficulties in which it is of late so deeply involved have arisen principally if not purely from the Cause of Religion 'T was a memorable saying that of my late Lord Chancellour Clarendon to the two Houses of Parliament soon after his late Majesty's happy Restauration It is said he a mournful subject and that which has cost the King many a Sigh many a sad Hour to consider that that very thing which was appointed by God as a Cement of Affection betwixt Strangers and Enemies Religion should now become the fiercest Incentive to Strife between the dearest Friends and nearest Relations This Consideration carries me back to examine from what time and from what cause this unhappy effect of Religion had its first rise For were it indeed to be found in the Root or Essence of Christianity it self I should conceive the Reception of such a Religion into the World and it s so long continuance amidst so many Nations to be a greater Miracle than any that was ever wrought for its Birth or Propagation But I take the fact to be far otherwise For upon the first Planting of Christianity the Apostles inspired with the Holy Ghost all taught one and the same Truths which their Disciples held themselves obliged to believe and for ever keep inviolate and intire as proceeding all from one and the same eternal Verity and when afterwards any difference arose concerning what was so taught or what not The general practice of Christians was to submit to the determination of their Pastors either Single or in a Provincial National or General Council as the exigency of the matter required and the circumstances of the time and place allowed Which left no room for pertinacy in Dissention at least not any possibility of disturbing the publique Peace And by this means Christianity remained in this Kingdom unshaken from its first entry until about the 24th year of K. Henry the 8th when that unhappy Prince not finding from his long and chargeable Addresses to Rome a passage to the Enjoyment of a second Wife the first then living breaks that Power he was not able to bend and levels whatever opposes to his unbridled Appetite and maugre Magna Charta which in the first place grants that the Church of England be free and all her Rights and Liberties inviolable the Treasures and Revenues of the Church nay it s very Foundations and Lands are no longer spared than that King's Profusions needed not fresh Supplies To this end by an Act in the 26 of his Reign the King is declared Head of the Church of England in Spirituals and that under the Penalty of High Treason to deny it But this Sounding Monstrous Novel many of the most eminent for Learning and Piety who could not believe what they had never before heard nor pretend to believe what really they did not lost their Lives and Fortunes and that with all the outward marks of Infamy The Fence being thus broken down whereby Unity had been thus long preserved no wonder if way was soon made for multiplying of Opinions For People being once persuaded they had been taught one untruth and that in a point of so great importance as the Headship of the Church in Spirituals how could they forbear to doubt whether they were not imposed upon and taught Untruths in many others also since both the one and the other depended on the same Authority And to what other Oracle could they then possibly resort for the solution of their Doubts but either to the mere Letter of the Scriptures on all hands admitted to be God's Word or else every man to his own Interpretation for himself Since if the Church it self had been so foully deceived therein and therefore forsaken by them certainly no other could pretend Authority to deliver the true Sence so as to oblige others to the belief of it But the King himself having lookt upon that Power as intolerable which had been ever before Superiour to him in Spirituals could now less brook any control or contradiction from His own Subjects over whose Souls and Consciences He assumed a more absolute Dominion than ever any Pope had done before or any King of England over their Bodies or Estates By this absolute Spiritual Power he thought to put a stop to that great difference of Opinions which multiplied every day and backing the said Spiritual Power with Authority of Parliaments which he had always at his beck and ready for his turn he began first to think of some means of Reducing Dissenters by Acts of Vniformity and then to make Tests much like to our Modern ones as to the meekness of their Stile thô a little point-blank as to

Trains and Lines prepared for it These are a few of the many Instances I could give on this Subject I pray you then what Interpretation can be made of such Endeavors for Excluding and Wresting from his Majesty's Service and Presence and from his Counsel in Parliament so vast a Number of his Subjects more valuable than Forts or Ships of whose Fidelity and Capacity to serve him he has the utmost assurance Looks not this somewhat like taking him into their Power who thus Thrust others from him And who knows but in time to come the Number thus excluded may be ten times greater than now it is And who knows also but many of those who make no scruple of the Tests may yet pretend it or whether they pretend it or no may yet forbear them of set purpose to defert his Service till between such as cannot and such as will not take them under pretence of Conformity to Law we shall have at last a King left without one Subject to Counsel Obey or Come near him Under this Contemplation of what now really is and what hereafter may farther happen with what face can any but pretend to Loyalty and not to be open Enemies to their King their Country and the Publick Peace when at the same time they cling and hug themselves up in so Pernicious or perhaps Treasonous Interpretation of these Two Acts. And what Horror and Indignation against them must it needs create in every man that has but the least spark of Loyalty left in his breast Gentlemen My business is not here to declare what I take to be true or false in Matters of Religion nor to advance the one nor depress the other What I speak of is only in reference to the Publick Peace which as much as in me lies is my Duty to promote To this end it is that I have given you here for the Subject a very short tho' for our time too large a Scheme of many of the great Mutations in Religion here in England of late times by Publick Authority and of some few of the many sharp Laws from time to time invented by each prevailing Party to force the submission of others The multitude of Men and even of whole Families not only that have suffer'd but have been driven into Foreign Lands or ruin'd and swallow'd up by those Devouring Laws are even beyond account or any Man's power to number up Where by the way it must be observed that the very suffering is a clear proof of the sincerity and well-meaning tho' it cannot be always of the truth of the sufferer And after all this Havock where every little Knave receives encouragement to insult over and make a prey of his more worthy Neighbour at length up comes this Brace of Tests Midwiv'd into Acts by the aid of persons then fam'd indeed for Patriots but soon after Notorious in the ensuing Conspiracy succeeded as their Natural Issue by a Plot that is the Disgrace of our Nation or rather The Plot and later Tests Twinchildren of the first succeeded also by Votes for Excluding his present Majesty from his Inheritance by an Horrible Conspiracy against the Lives of our present and late King and by the Great and Dangerous Rebellion of England and now at last to the World's wonder and their own shame most closely and that in the worst sence adhered unto by such Vain Boasters of Loyalty as would allow no share of it to any part of the World but themselves thô by this very adherence their own share of it becomes far too little for any prudent Prince to rely on But at length God Almighty in his Mercy hath given us a King whose Heart he has inspired with Wisdom to discern the Imprudence as well as Injustice of all these Severe Laws with mildness to admit a general Abolition of them all tho' from many of them great Riches have been and might still be drawn to the Crown and with Fortitude to prosecute with an undaunted Courage as well as indefatigable Labour so glorious a Work tho' strongly encountred therein by Two sorts of men Both I confess too numerous and in their own Opinions very mighty and as many more as either of these are able to impose upon or deceive The one such as being unacquainted with the use of Reasoning or not liking the labour of it imagine Religion can be no longer kept up than it is Gig-like lasht into motion and yet themselves much too tender to bear the least touch And yet again thrô want of Thought expose themselves to the utmost peril not foreseeing that they cannot be sure to be always uppermost and when not so the Penalties they prepare or retain for others fall directly on their own heads The other sort such whose manner of life seems to indicate little other sense of Religion than a fear lest their vicious Customs should fall under some restraint by the Practice of it Right Religion consists not in Violence Noise or Tumult God was not in the Whirl-wind nor in the Earthquake nor in the Fire when he spoke to Elias but in the still small Voice Religion rather consists in Meekness long Suffering and doing as we would have others do to us We have our Saviour's word That a Kingdom divided cannot stand Now there are but two ways imaginable whereby such a Division among Christians can possibly be avoided as must else necessarily terminate in the utter overthrow of Christianity it self which is Christ's own Kingdom and which every Christian must needs abhor to think of One is by the general Submission of particular Christians to one common Authority which how much soever to be wisht for cannot now be supposed practicable and therefore no more need be said of that The other is by bearing with one anothers differences in Religion and in letting every man enjoy his own without offending or being offended at his Neighbour This later His Majesty has graciously chosen He has not only already granted a general Indulgence which yet can last but during Pleasure but he is also ready totally to dissolve our Bonds and set us so free that even his own or Successor's hands shall not be able to hurt us for matters of Religion And this by a Magna Charta as solemn and sacred as that by which we enjoy our Lives and Estates What then remains on our parts Must we always imitate the hardned Jews in murmuring against our most Benign Rulers against God himself and nauseate the Quails and Manna he sends us Must we always Slave-like hug the Chains which tye up both King and People not onely from restoring the Kingdom 's Glory abroad but even from its necessary Defence at home Or ought we not rather with united Hearts first offer up our Thanks and Praises to God in whose Hands are the Hearts of Kings for having put it into the King's heart to do such good things for his People Next to present our unanimous Thanks in an Humble Address to His Majesty and then with as united hands and with all the power we have to serve and assist Him Which at this time we can no ways better do than by employing our utmost endeavours to Find and Elect for Parliament when called such Members as we may be sure or reasonably hope will readily and chearfully joyn with His Majesty in this so Pious Prudent Charitable and kind Determination joyned with our hearty Prayers for the good success of it It remains now Gentlemen of the Jury that I Address my self particularly to you and that I give you in charge what Offences you are to make enquiry of for this present Sessions But I am sensible that I have already trespassed sufficiently upon the Patience of the Court and thô the importance of my Subject be really so great and considerable both for the Service of His Majesty and for the Welfare of us all that it does very well justifie the length of my Discourse yet that I may not render it tedious without necessity I shall wave at present all enumeration of such particular matters as make the usual and ordinary subject of a Charge You your selves Gentlemen are not unacquainted of what nature they are and Indictments and Presentments will be brought in to you for all such more urgent matters as shall need and require a more special Consideration and Redress FINIS ERRATA Page 4. l. 19. read need to fear p. 8. l. 21. after Jurisdiction 1. but by from and under His Majesty