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
A95506	The resolver continued, or Satisfaction to some scruples about putting the late King to death. In a letter from a minister of the Gospel, to a Friend in London; together, with a word to the Parliament, the High Court of Justice, Malignants, discontented Friends, and the People of the Nation.	N. T.	1649 (1649)	Wing T39; Thomason E546_17; ESTC R206112	19,538	24

serious consideration these things and because I know you are wife I will rather speake words then dilate in sentences First the Covenant which was made and you mention was not an absolute but a conditionall Covenant It was not a Covenant of free grace such as God maketh with men but of his love mixed with Justice such as an Indulgent people make with a seduced Prince yet so as to be just unto the Nation while mercifull unto him Had we sworn hand over head as we use to say to preserve the Kings Person Perfas nefas in all cases whatsoever this had been a Covenant altogether of Free-grace unto him but not of Justice unto the Land And certainly such a Covenant as this had it passed the hands of some Minions of Monarchy could never have entered into the hearts of any that are Lovers of equity It is above my power to Covenant with my enraged parent who standeth ready to destroy me and my brethren that come what will I will preserve his life Suppose it were so that if I killed not him he would kill me Or suppose he should kill some of my brethren durst I or ought I to Covenant in that case his preservation Or if I were so weake as to make rashly were it not my wisdom to receede repentingly from such a Covenant Doubtlesse the civill obligation of a people unto Princes doth not amount higher if so high as the naturall tye of children unto parents Secondly the condition of the Covenant is cleare for it is expressy provided that the Kings person should be within the pale of the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom all the while the Covenant should bind any unto his preservation Though the life of the King were to be preserved as precious it was because it was bound up in the bundle of Religion Liberty and Priviledges if therefore it fell out of that bundle it lay but as a common thing It is true if in the preservation of the true Religion and Liberty of the people the Kings life could have been preserved he might have lived untill now for ought I know But sith his life would procure the danger of those greater things I see not why his death may not be called their preservation Whether the true Religion could be preserved in his preservation let Mr. Prinnes Royall Favourite informe you To prepare And let his Commissions unto Lish Papists for their Rebellion inable you to passe a censure And for the Priviledges of Parliament and Liberty of the People how inconsistent their preservation and his Person were together is needlesse to say much more needlesse to argue Thirdly neither was the Covenant be it such as you immagine eternall the Contents thereof were not for an everlasting Almanack or if it were we might in our old Latine call it Erra Pater it was a Covenant made in a time of War in Order unto an open and then potent enemies redusing unto tearmes of a just peace And as farre as I can judge that part which concerneth the Kings person was a summons sent unto a Town or Castle with Conditions which if accepted have power of a Covenant If the King had either first or last which he was many times intreated unto accepted of the Covenant it had been binding Though one party stretch forth his hand yet if the other do not strike it is rather a Covenant intended then made but the Kings first and continued refusall are and were our release Nay had he at all taken it and by his taking of it layd that part of the Covenant that concerned him as an obligation on us yet his actions were and have been so contrary unto the Covenant and the great things thereof As that he did totally nullifie and violate it and surely the violation of any Covenant so farre as it is conditionall by one party leaveth the other nnocent in case he observed it not When my Wife turneth adultresse my Covenant with her is broken And when my King turneth Tyrant and continueth so my Covenant with him also is broken Indeed it is a pretty note of one of the Rabbins upon the Proverbs 29.4 that the Holy-Ghost doth not vouchsafe to call him a King who doth oppose his people But Fourthly the end of that clause which concerneth the executed King it declareth that it was to let the world know we had no thought nor intention to deminish His Majesties just power and greatnesse Now clear it is that it is not the just power nor the just greatnesse of any King that ever was to be free from the Power and Authority of Justice and Majesty it self such a losing of a King Buckanan rather accounted the losing of a Monster then the losing of a man I may rather promise to maintain and preserve that which is the just power and the just greatnesse of any Prince or Person whatsoever in the world and yet notwithstanding I may without breach of promise judge the unjust actions of the said Person and bring him unto Justice too It hath ever been the unjust usurpation of Tyrannous Princes by the unlawfull claime of great Tyranny to plead an exemption from legall Tryall for illegall facts such an exemption were not a just greatnesse but a great injustice By this you may therefore guesse that all those scruples pretendedly built upon the Covenant have more of shew then of strength And such as in this pretend Religion do indeed affront reason The Covenant may and doth remain inviolable notwithstanding the Triall of Charles Stuart And humbly confident I am in the great day of Accompt it will never be charged upon either Authors or Approvers of the late Execution that they were Covenant-Breakers with the great God I confesse I dare not entertain such dishonourable thoughts either of the Composers or Imposers of that Covenant that it was their aime thereby so to insnare both themselves and others as that the receiving thereof should bind them in all cases up to such a prosecution of the Kings person as that the Law Religion Priviledges and Liberties should all rather sink and perish then he should suffer Justice What a meer mockery had been of the Almighty to enter into a Covenant the maine and sole end of which was Reformation And yet not to Covenant for but rather to Covenant against the Honourable just and necessary tryall of exorbitant and Tyrannous Princes and Governours by what Title soever Certainly the Reformation of the Arbitrary power of Princes which necessarily includeth a punishment of such as in that way hath deformed the beauty and almost destroyed the being of State is as great a peece of Reformation as ever the English or any State could or should set upon The true and righteous end of the Covenant so much urged I never did nor could ever take to be other then a holy righteous honourable and lasting Reformation and setling of all things amongst us