Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	king_n	kingdom_n	majesty_n	5,039	5	6.1083	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66761	Mercurius rusticus, or, A countrey messenger informing divers things worthy to be taken notice of, for the furtherance of those proceedings which concerne the publique peace and safety.	Wither, George, 1588-1667.	1643 (1643)	Wing W3171; ESTC R19091	13,618	18

become a Daughter nay a nursing Mother of this Church if she had not been left to their delusions who if it were possible would deceive the very Elect If those who had place and opportunities to have endeavoured it and as we heare had inducements to hope it might have been effected had according to their duty attempted the same And whether it is not likely that the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the whole Prelacie are now come to this shame because they complyed with her seducers and rather confirmed her in an Idolatrous worship then assayed to inform her in the right way Thirdly Whether it be possible that a King many yeers honoured with evidences of Piety and Morality could possibly proceed as he hath done if the falshood and impiety of his evill counsellors were not vailed over with some disguises And whether though he make use of them for the present necessities he can esteem them in his private judgement bettep then Traitors or base Parasites who having been at first Zelots for the Parliament afterward left it for the wages of Ambition Or whether he can esteeme of those more then of a dog deserving the halter who being first raised by His Royall favour and long maintained by Projects and Monopolies obtained by abusing that Royall Power could desert their Advancer and comply with the Parliament to avoid their censures and afterward againe when they saw the Parliament eclipsed could basely creep and insinuate back into his Bosome whom they had forsaken Fourthly Protestants and Papists being so exasperated against each other and the Papists having begun a bloody Massacre in Ireland which the Tenets of their Religion bind them to prosecute upon all advantages whether can they ever be so reconciled as to live securely together again in these Ilands so long as they continue of different Religions And whether they will think the King out of their debt untill he hath given them leave to prop●gate their Religion at their pleasure and means to secure it in this Kingdome by power put into their hands And if hee should so doe whether Truth and Peace were then likely to be setled in these Kingdomes Fiftly Whether his Majesty be not by reason discharged from all obligations to the Papists for personall services and contributions to this war and bound in justice to punish rather then reward them for the same seeing he cannot but know both by their tenets and by those motives whereby the Queene incouraged them in her letters that they aided him for n● respect to himself if he be not totally theirs but meerly for their own ends and to continue that barbarous and murtherous project which they long since begun here lately revived in Ireland and do now prosecute throughout his Majesties dominions for the accomplishment of our generall premeditated destruction under the false colour of serving his Majesty and promoting his Priviledges The last Question of theirs which I will trouble you withall is If we suffer the policies of Antichrist for the continuation of his mistery of iniquity thus to divide the body from the head the King from the Parliament the Court from the City the City from the Country the Nobles from the Commons the Commons from themselves yea to divide the Church the State every Province every County every City every Village every Family and many individuall persons in their own judgements whether this be not or will not be shortly such a divided kingdome as cannot long stand without Gods miraculous aid and our more serious working with him And whether will not the children of Babel seek to repaire again her decayes by the ruines of our British Churches And whether it be not required of us and high time for us to be reconciled to God and to each other that we may hasten the fullfilling of his decree concerning the whore the malignant City the false Prophet the Beast and do that to them which they purpose to us and have already begun to doe in Ireland with unexampled cruelty even to beat or banish them who will not forsake their abominations out of these Islands that Babylon may vanish and the new Jerusalem come down amongst us How these questions are to be voted upon let every one consider and resolve by himself according to his discretion Perchance there be some who are desirous to here what opinion we have in the Country touching the nationall covenant lately tendred and perhaps also the knowledge thereof may be to some purpose You shall hereby understand therefore that not onely all men well affected to the Parliament but every other reasonable man also in these Counties where this Mercurie hath been thus conceives of the said Covenant First That it tends to the strengthning of that nationall union which is now made betwixt us and the Scots and the want of which was an occasion of much blood-shed in this Island many ages together Secondly That it conduceth to that unity and conformity throughout all the reformed Churches which may by Gods blessing settle Christian peace prevent the future increase of heresies and schismes hitherto multiplied amongst us help to preserve truth in purity against the incroachments of popery and superstition and further the overthrowes of Antichrist Fourthly That it will help secure unto us our just rights and priviledges with the preservation of his Majesties person honour and lawfull prerogatives against Traitors Flatterers Tirants and Oppressors Fiftly That it ingageth us to a speedy repentance of those sins which have brought on us the present plagues and to the amendment of our lives also for the time to come 6. They hold it agreeable to the practise of the ancient Churches of God who when such occasions were made covenants to the like effect by Divine approbation as their covenants recorded in holy writ may testifie And the opinion of those among them whose judgement is not to be despised is this that whosoever willfully refuses this covenant deserveth to be reputed an enemy to all that is good to be chastised by all the miseries attending division and discord and to be deprived of every good effect which it may produce hereafter for the present to be denied the vse of those good things which they possesse among us and to be judged unworthy to continue in this land or to partake of this ayre any longer Of the like opinion is this Mercurie who among many other observations in his rustick preambulations had these two which I thought not impertinently divulged at this time One is that they who would seeme to have the tenderest consciences in this cause betwixt the King and Parliament and who usually colour their opposing the Parliament by pretending a conscionable obedience to all the Kings commands are they if we may judge them by their former conversation and present course of life who make little conscience of that or of any sin else As if for making no conscience of breaking such lawes as were once written in their hearts

a severe judgement that mis-judgeth his brother but doubtlesse he exposeth himselfe to a greater condemnation that judgeth scandalously of a whole Nation and the honesty and faithfulnesse of such a one is justly to be suspected Now to prevent the murmurings of those seeming to be on the Parliament side who grumble at the mony which they are to receive from us towards their Expedition to New-eastle the honest countrey people hold it good counsel to put these murmurers in mind First how cold this winter may prove and perhaps the next also if the Collieries there be not set open to us before a passage be made thither by Forces from this place Secondly how much it concerns us to have the Scots ingaged with us in our Cause as now they are And lastly that the money wherewith by Gods help they may finish that work is not probably so much as would be required to raise carry thither bring back an Armie sent from us to that purpose though it should cost nothing during their abode there There is cause of hope that by means of the New-great-soale which is now comming forth Justice will have her course more freely then of late and many mischievous designs of the Kings ill Counsellors wil be prevented If it had power also to conjure down the spirit of Malignancie which is raised in these I lands and take away Faction hypocrisie self-love and discord from among us it were a qualification which I feare it hath not yet perhaps it may be a means to further those proceedings which will much hinder their evill effects for the present and abate at least the predominancie of those vices ere long We are incredibly informed from Oxford that the King had no considerable losle at the skirmish by Alborne or at the battell neere Newberie as we have been made beleeve It is true indeed that he lost many Men and Subjects but they are but trifles and it is almost generally supposed though hoped otherwise by me things which he regards not He lost also many good horses as his own partie doth confesse but he had them onely for taking up and hath takers enough to recrute them He lost Lords and a great Officer c. but that is a losse the least worth notice of all the rest for they are toyes which if he please he can make of the veryest rascals in his Army they did wel therefore to give God thanks that their losses were no greater But had they been so great on our side we should rather have addressed our selves unto him by way of humiliation then have mocked him with a counterfet Thanksgiving as they have often done and may now doe againe for their late overthrows in Lincoln-shire and at Hull It is further certified from Oxford or else Mercurie deviz'd it which is very probable that the Arch-bishop of Canterburie hohourable in nothing but in this that he will be the occasion of rooting out the Prelacie from this Kingdom hath made a motion that Prince Rupert who was there Incorporated and made Master of Arts when that little good Bishop then dreaming not of such a change entertained him and His Majestie might proceed Doctor to make him the more capable of a Bishoprick which it is presumed the Papists will procure the Popes Holinesse to confer upon him for his good services in their Cause at his return I know not-whither for habitation he hath none and that makes him so mischievous to those that have It is there thought also by some of His Majesties servants as our Mercurie verily beleeveth that the Queen will not have so many Masks at Christmas and Shrovetide this yeare as she was wont to have other yeeres heretofore because Inigo Iones cannot conveniently make such-Heavens and Paradises at Oxford as he did at White-hall because the Poets are dead beggered or run away who were wont in their Masks to make Gods and Goddesses of them and shamefully to flatter them with Attributes neither fitting to be ascribed or accepted of and some are of opinion that this is one of the innumerable vanities which hath made them and us become so miserable at this day We heare not yet any particulars of the late Ambassadours entertainment at Oxford but wagers may be laid that he shall heare there many lying vaunts of their valorous atchievements and untrue allegations against the Parl. for what will not they aver in private discourses who are not ashamed to belie them in publique and to their face We are informed of many strange Sermons preached every Lords day at Court some tending to P●perie some to Tyrannie or to the encouragement of their Auditors to a furious prosecution of this unnaturall War And we hear of as many preached in other places to as ill purposes another way Insomuch that the well-affected Countrey people are perswaded that if God had not by the Parliaments wisdom and their exemplarie loyaltie caused those false Prophets to dissemble their secret desires many of them if they have not done it already would have preached Treason and animated to that Rebellion wherof we are falsly accused by the promoters of Tyrannie because we wil not desert the reality of Allegeance to professe and practice the bare complements thereof to the destruction both of our Liege Lord His Kingdoms and our selves Other Doctrines are also vented among us by some pretending to Reformation which all the Reformed Churches would be loth to owne and which will prolong our miseries if the Parliament and Synode with whom they in some things comply for their present security do not as we hope they wil timely discover and prevent their increasing Heresies and false Maximes There was lately a meeting at one of our Countrey Exchanges where Mercurie being in the Chaire many particulars pertinent to the present affaires of the time were put to the Question but what is fit to be resolved or voted thereupon it is referred to your conscience who now shall read them The Questions put are these First Whether the King being yet constant in the Protestant Religion and reall according to all his Protestations made before God and Man touching this Church and State the prevalencie of his Queen may not make him contrarie to his present purpose doe for a womans sake as much as Solomon and the flatteries and importunies of his young and evill counsellors bring him to as great a losse as Rhehoboams whether also he may not be permitted to slip into some failings for our sins which drew down these judgements for our chastisement as it befell the Israelites for Davids sin And whether he may not repent also as well as David and be at last reconciled to God and us to the publique advantage and his encrease of honour when we have repented our transgressions Secondly The Queen having ●o many yeers after her first comming enjoy'd the love even of those of this Nation who are of a contrary Religion might not then haue been won to