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	parliament_n	5,178	5	6.3666	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90886	The moderator expecting sudden peace, or certaine ruine. Directed by reason, arising out of the consideration of what hath already happened, our present condition, and the most likely consequents of these.	Povey, Thomas, fl. 1633-1685.	1643 (1643)	Wing P3042; Thomason E89_21; ESTC R15715	28,792	33

more danger then ever they saw it How farre they would then have had the abusers of their Princes Power The destroyers of Law and Justice The cut-throats of the State the Monopolizers How farre I say they would then have had these punished and made Examples How much of the insulting Clergies wings they would then have been glad to have clipped Let their zeal for a Reformation both in Church and State be such in every circumstance as it was then and more need not be defired Let them not Because they are angry with themselves I mean with their Fellow Subjects Revenge themselves upon Posterity by setting up against themselves not only a larger Power but an Authority also even by their own Grants by their own Swords It lyes not in the Power of the Subject to conferre more toward their slavery then to pull down a Parliament upon what necessity or pretence soever with their own hands This shall be a lasting President and Disparagement in all Ages and a warrant to all Princes to discountenance them since they work not better effects upon the State and that side must be sure to own all the guilt which shall be overthrown A Parliament will be said to be the sole Author of these Miseries Thus It will become the disdain which was alwayes hitherto the Darling of the People Thus a perpetuall Prejudice shall stick upon all hereafter and then what use shall the overborne Subject have of his Sanctuary If it want Reverence it will want Power If it want Power it will onely serve to give away our Estates not amend them And is it not likely when the Improvident People shall inflame their Prince in a Contestation where themselves are so neerly concerned That it will instruct such a one as shall by Himself or His Councellours hereafter have an aym at an absolute command to struggle with them at any time when they aske in Parliament for things covenient or necessary and to call it a Beam of His Prerogative though it be indeed but a false Reflection of an Usurped Light Let them seriously consider to which side they ought in right Reason to give the most advantage in these Propositions When a Prince wins any thing from His People much more when they urge it upon Him He will be sure to hold fast what He hath and many times Improves never diminishes it whereas if the Subject gain any extraordinary thing from the Crown how necessary soever with what difficulty is it enjoyed How many Tricks and Invasions have the Instruments of State to cozen the People of the benefit of it Our Predecessors have been as much afraid of the greatnesse of their Soveraign though over other Nations as of the Diminution of their own Estate and therefore did their best to diminish His Power or Fortunes lest by enlarging Himself upon a Neighbouring Adversary He might forget Himself and become too high for them Surely then some such care is due to the Affairs at this time yet it must be averred That he that robs his Prince of His honour● impaires the reputation of his Countrey and he that would fix any honour in Him which cannot be communicable to the Common-wealth sins against both The Punctuallity and Nicity of the Honour and Greatnesse of the King hath seldome been enough to hold up a Warre with wary Subjects especially among themselves Let them take care to do things safe and honourable for the Common-wealth of which He is chief and it will be impossible That the Kings Honour and safety should not be mingled with it I hope He will finde as much Honour in saving a perishing Kingdom as if He were gaining a new one And whilest He thus makes a Conquest on His Peoples hearts He renders Himself greater then His driving Councellors could make Him were they at the end of their Designes It were worth our joy to see Him return triumphing with but not over His People And as that Party should do their duty so is there Reason That they on the other side should do theirs Let them remember that they have a King That whilest He is in a Cloude we are in the shade and want that Influence which may revive the State and make it flourish Let no man so dote upon a Parliament as to think it wants errours nor conceit there can be any Government contrived so proper to the Nature and Constitution of this State as Monarchy so circumscribed and quallified as ours is by the Wisedom and care of our Predecessors the providence of this Parliament Let them lay aside violent conceits and expectations and let them believe having so good Reasons for it That they will sooner reach their Destruction then that thorough-Reformation which by many is aymed at The Speech of the Chan to Hen. 5. Let every man value the blessings of Union by the Miseries we have undergone by Division Let us seek Peace earnestly but let it not as yet be by this Argument Bellum faciamus ut Pacem habeamus nam finis Belli Pax est but here it will prove too true That Finis hujus Belli Ruina erit Yet let us know That Peace lest we be over-reached in the match must now be woed with circumspection That the Managers of Treaties are State Jugglers and that the most Interessed men are likeliest to be employed in it That those therefore that never had any minde to the Warre have Reason to be carefull how the Peace be concluded That it is requisite both sides should make themselves as considerable as they can at such a time That to pay the Army now is to improve the benefit of a Peace which at best by this kinde of conclusion will yeild lesse advantage to the Subject then to the King though it be now absolutely necessary for both And we have Reason to make the best use of this nick of Time and not deferre it an instant farther For after all this endeavour of both sides after every one hath done his best toward the great cure of this languishing State the disease hath been let runne so farre That it will almost be beyond all hope that we shall ever see a recovery Into so desperate a Consumption are we fallen partly by their fault that should have had more care of our health in whose Power we all thought it once lay to prepare such Preservatives for us that we might have been setled in such a healthfull Constitution that none of these evills could now have vexed us Our sad Case is now such That we have an Incensed God an angry King a threatning Councell a heady Clergy a divided Nobility a discontented Gentry a distempered People a distracted Religion an unhinged State a confused Government undermining Adversaries a Civill Warre an increase of Souldiers consumption of Treasure dis-union in united Kingdoms lost Reputation an unniversall Jealousie a defection from the Principles of sound Policy a Parliament which should be the Redresse of all these made quite

only to secure the Kingdome and rescue it from some Enemies that are in the bosome of it which have malignantly thwarted the long-looked for blessings of this Parliament And it is confessed though not agreed on by both Armies that our Religion Lawes Liberties and whatsoever is or should be deare unto us lies at the stake and that they weare their Swords only to defend these and that these cannot be safe unlesse one of them prove victorious Thus our cause is much like a riddle It were surely better for us to have it understood by the deliberation and wisdome of a parley then by such meanes as Alexander used to unty the Gordian knot the violence of the sword If Religion be the principall reason how few hopes have we to see it rectified by War which is the nu●ce of barbarisme The Souldier the instrument of this kind of reformation after he shall be a little more ve sed in his rude profession we shall scarce ever finde devoted to any thing of Religion besides the pretence and noyse of it in their talke only to set a glosse upon their quarrell from them we must looke for little else but prophanation and sacriledge And suppose these men of War prove more civill and pious then all other Souldiers before them what religion shall we expect to be exercised during this War which wil be a continuing Holy-day to all licentiousnesse when as in this necessitated intermission of strict government how many new fancied religions boldly discover themselves how little reverence and how much prophanation have we seen Religion is a child of peace and if an aged peace have the fostering of it it will be hard to keepe it cleare from innovations and superstition the endeavours of the idle Clergy and that state that cannot or will not remove these mischiefes without the sword endangers the very body of it whilst it would only lop off the extravagancies Such effects as these we can only looke for when a lasting War shall undertake to compose a divided Church it may some have thought happen otherwise if the designe be so advisedly laid and so rigorously prosecuted that the execution of it shal be suddaine But it will be told me when the Parliaments Army hath gotten the victory and all oppositions shall be removed so that they may without interruption reach their ends such a Reformation will be effected as shall recompence the disturbance in the gaining of it Any man that consults with his unbiassed reason cannot well promise this to himselfe for we shall finde such a victory and such a reformation very doubtfull But we will suppose them conquerors It hath been the opinion of some that successe may somewhat heighten their religious designes and suggest such things as easy and convenient which before their very imagination durst not reach at Then they will have time to consider all their opposites even those who before this reformation grew so violent were accounted Puritans Then it is likely neither roote nor branch of our old Church order shall be left nor any signe where it grew And though perhaps themselves could be contented with a more even and moderate reformation It may be seared that the loud people delighting in change and growen insolent with their successe will call for a mutation in every circumstance and when they have found their strength will thinke nothing enough if they have not all that their wild and unlimitted Zeale approves of And if some mistaken not the interest of the Parliament will then be to settle a more tigid government to say no more in the Church then will now satisfy them and all modest Protestants And on the contrary our condition cannot well be such as we could wish it if the subjects of England make the King a Conquerour whether he will or no nor is this impossible Doe we believe the prelacy and the other ambitious Clergy will then be any whit lesse insolent then they have been will they not rather adde to then diminish their ceremonies will they not pretend that preaching hath seduced the people and begat heresies that the Pulpit was the late in cendarie to the great mischiefes and therefore take a pious occasion to be Idle and make the abused people believe that the Common Prayer tends more to their salvation then the frequency of preaching will these men of the cassocks be lesse vitious in their lives lesse corrupt in their Doctrine lesse exacting in their Tythes and pretended dues then heretofore And to conclude will it lye in the interest or the power of the King when he shall be busied to settle the confused Common-Wealth for his best advantage to bridle his Clergy which ever were are and wil be the most considerable sticklers when any bustle or mutation happens in a state we must then looke to finde these sort of men still like themselves so busy as if their imployment were rather to improve prerogatives then salvation Their predecessors History tells us were almost alwaies opposers of their Prince And some are of opinion that they doe otherwise now not because their Religion but their interest is altered And it hath been alwaies unhappily obserued that their conscience followes their dependancy and that they put their cases and state their questions as much by the motions of the latter as the former And if there were ever any reason to be jealous of the incroaching power of papists it will be then for if the King for his preservation and through necessity the reasons now urged upon this occasion be driven to make use of them to doe his businesse and by their help become victorious the Common people may seare that they shall hereafter see as much popery mingled in their worship as in their Armies and those of better judgement cannot but conceive that when Papists have merited so much from the King that they will be more modest with him then with God from whom they dare challenge a requitall for their merits and upon such a turne as this it will be to their great advantage that the people to whom the reputed Puritans and Round-heads must by all meanes be made ●dioas will be lesse troubled if some of those severe statutes against them be repealed or despensed with and some other things be done in their favour for being Bustier Subjects to the King of England the first time it was ever thought they could be so then many of his Protestant Subjects Such consequences as these we must look for on both sides if the partiall sword and not the indifferent Synod must be the Ecclesiasticall reformer The Religion which all moderate men and I thinke most and best desire is that which both sides promise and yet that which wee cannot well expect from either side should it become absolute It is such a one as may be found out betwixt them both and wee may hope may make all men happy if it be tempered with a reasonable yeelding on both sides