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	parliament_n	3,205	5	6.3516	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50102	The case of allegiance in our present circumstances consider'd in a letter from a minister in the city to a minister in the country.	Masters, Samuel, 1645 or 6-1693.	1689 (1689)	Wing M1067; ESTC R7622	29,404	42

mischief or wickedness that will advance their glory and promote their interests When also we consider that he proceeded in these courses with so obstinate a resolution that when his Peers indeavoured to raclaim him by advice they only thereby lost his favour and all their Preferments and when some of his Bishops petitioned him in the humblest manner they were answered only with fury and imprisonment When lastly we consider how far he had advanc'd in this way that we already began to despair and our Enemies to triumph and if our Glorious Deliverer had not timely intervened we might have been in a few months past all hopes of Recovery We may surely upon these considerations be allowed to conclude That England could not be in more danger or any Prince lie under juster exceptions or a people be more disoblig'd from their Allegiance There are some who say that if the League with France the Imposture of a young Prince the Murder of the Earl of Essex c. were clearly proved they should not be able to contain themselves from renouncing all Allegiance to him But though these may perchance be proved in due time yet if they never are there is certainly enough and too much besides to satisfie any reasonable Man. 2. If James the Second deserted the Kingdom without any necessity but what he induced on himself and if he made no provision for the administration of the Government in his absence but by taking away the publick Seals and cancelling the Writs of Parliament design'd to obstruct all regular proceedings and if also he hath put himself into the hands of the French King the greatest Enemy of our Religion and Country without whom he cannot return to us and with whom he cannot return without apparent ruine to his Kingdom he doth thereby cease de facto to be our King and we become discharged from all further Allegiance to him I suppose few would haesitate in granting such a conclusion if the Late King had by a writing under his hand and Seal solemnly abdicated the Government but I know not what mighty force there is in a form of Words for renouncing the Government that it may not be as effectually performed by a proper and notorious fact or that a King may not as well renounce his Crown by doing it as by saying it and it is the thing it self and not the way of expressing it which is the ground on which the relation between a King and his Subjects is dissolved and therefore if a King doth actually desert his People his Government and their Obedience must thereupon actually cease You would perchance easily allow the argument if the King had withdrawn deliberately and of choice but it is said that he was rather hurried out of his Kingdom by force and fear It will be therefore necessary to relate to you the History of that transaction which according to the truest account that I can meet with is this When the King went hence the first time the Prince and his Armie were at a great distance and a Treatie between them was pretended but he left the City before his Commissioners could return with an Answer to his Demands and it is certain that the Treaty was but a delusive Pretence and that his Departure was resolv'd on some Days before for he himself declar'd to a Person of Credit that the Queen had obtained from him a Solemn Oath upon the Sacrament on the Sunday that if the went away for France on Monday he would not fail to follow her on Tuesday Which he accordingly attempted and we are very well assur'd that tho his Subjects used some Force to hinder his Flight yet they used none to compel him to it When he left this City the second time he receiv'd a Message from the Prince which desir'd him to withdraw some few Miles from London lest the Army coming thither and Whitehall being throng'd with Papists some Disorders might thence arise not consistent with the Publick Peace or the Kings Safety but we are sure that it was altogether of his own Choice that he went first to Rochester and thence out of the Kingdom If you reply that the late King being deserted by his Subjects and exposed naked to the Prince's Power was brought under a necessity of flying I must answer that that Necessity was not absolute but conditional For the Prince to whom he lately allowed the Character of being always Just to his Word had assur'd him in his Declaration that if he would suffer the Grievances of his People to be redress'd in a Free Parliament his Army should peaceably depart And not a few of his Nobles and others did earnestly beseech him to comply with those Terms and solemnly assure him that in such a Compliance they would faithfully adhere to him If therefore the late King would have return'd to the English Government he need not have left the Kingdom but if he chose rather to depose and banish himself than acknowledg and correct the Errors of his Government or let fall those glorious Projects of advancing Popery and an Arbitrary Power in England we have no Reason to think such a wilful Necessity which he imposed upon himself a sufficient Excuse for deserting his Kingdom but rather to conclude that if he would rather leave us than leave off to oppress us we are happily releas'd from our Allegiance and Oppression together Yet if we should impute his Flight rather to the weakness of his Fear than to the obstinacy of his Resolution I do not see how the same Conclusion can be avoided For if he leave off to administer the Government himself and rather hinder than promote its Administration by others the course of the Government is thereby stop'd and either this Nation must disband into Confusion or we are necessitated to seek out and imploy some other Expedient If you think that he might in short time overcome his Fears and return to his People and Government even this Hope is fatally precluded by his making himself a Royal Prisoner to the French King from whom he can expect only to be used and managed as will most contribute to the Designs and Interests of that Haughty Monarch insomuch that we cannot conceive his Return possible without the Consent and Conduct of Him whom he hath made his Patron and without the dreadful attendance of a French Army and the dismal Consequence of utter Ruine to our Church and Nation And surely that Prince who can forsake his People and abandon them out of his Care and make it impossible to return except as an Enemy to vanquish and destroy them may very well be thought to cease de facto to be a King and his Subjects to owe any Allegiance to him 3. It the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons of England assembled in the late Convention have upon mature Deliberation resolved and declared that James the 2d hath abdicated the Government and vacated the Throne we may be satisfactorily