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	law_n	parliament_n	7,328	5	6.6868	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41382	The state of the Church of Christ in its militancy upon earth, and the duty of it, with respect to penal laws in a sermon preach'd at the assizes at Chelmsford in the county of Essex, 8 March 1687/8 / by Richard Golty ...	Golty, Richard.	1688 (1688)	Wing G1022; ESTC R1819	12,225	31

for its Cure. The Honourable and Pious Lord Chief Justice Hale lamenting that the Cause of Love and Piety was hindred by our present Constitutions did declare That the only means to beal us was a New Act of Vniformity that should neither leave all at liberty nor impose any thing but what was necessary And with the Assistance of the Lord Keeper Bridgman and Bishop Wilkins drew up the Form of a Bill to be tendred to the Parliament to that purpose The Arch-bishop of Armagh for the healing of Distractions and for the return of a Wished for Peace and Vnity did contrive some prudent Accommodation necessary Bishop Taylor in his Duct Dubitant expresses himself abundantly in this Case as thus with respect to our Condition he gives it as a Rule That the Ecclesiastical Laws must be easie and charirable and when they are not they oblige not and that Ecclesiastical Laws that are meerly such can't be universal and perpetual Bishop Davenant in his Letter to Dureus saith That which makes Schisms perptual i st he exercise of a Tyrannical Power so as not to acknowledge any for Brethren or admit any to Communion with them who will not receive from them in any difference of Opinion a Law both of believing and speaking 'T is the determination of a Learned Doctor of our Church That without Controversie the main inlet of all the Distractions Confusions and Divisions of the Christian World is by adding other Conditions of Church Communion than Christ hath done Were it needful I might fill a Volume with Quotations of this kind but I shall only instance in these which next to that in my Text ought to be the greatest Authority with us King James the First of Pious Memory as Causabon in his Epistle to Cardinal Perron informs us Thought that for Concord there is no nearer way than diligently to separate things necessary from the unnecessary and to bestow all our Labour that we may agree in what is necessary and that in what is not so there may be Christian Liberty allow'd The Royal Martyr Charles the First of glorious Memory in Consideration of the State of the Kingdom in 1641 speaks thus As for Differences among our selves for Matters in their own nature that are indifferent concerning Religion We shall willingly Comply with the Advice of our Parliament that some Law may be made for the exemption of Tender Consciences from Punishment or Prosecution for such Ceremonies which by the judgment of most men are held to be matters indifferent and of some to be absolutely unlawful The late King Charles the Second of blessed Memory in his Declaration from Breda first and in his Declaration for Indulgence to Tender Consciences afterwards gave sufficient Evidence of his Concurrent Opinion with his Royal Progenitors Thus it can't but be acknowledg'd That some of the Wisest and most Learned and the greatest of Men in these Three last Reigns were affected with a sense of a Disease that the Church and Nation have been labouring under and it appears that his Majesties Royal Ancestors had it often in their Thoughts and upon their Desires that it might be heal'd And as for our present Gracious Soveraign that now wears the Imperial Crown and sways the Royal Sceptre whom God preserve it appears that what was in the Heart of David his Father hath a long time been upon the Heart and now is upon the Hand of our Solomon his Son and his Hand findeth to do it with all his Might He like a Tender and Prudent Physician experiencing the inefficacy and inconvenience of those corroding and acrimonious Applications that have been too long us'd thinks it proper instead of that Salt and Vinegar which hath only increas'd and inflam'd our Wounds to recommend the Lenitives of Oyl and Balsam most probably hoping that the warm Beams of an Indulging Sun will prevail to the laying of that viciousness of Temper which the rough and tempestuous Wind had occasion'd Our Healing Soveraign observing the Body Politick and Ecclesiastick like the Man in the Gospel that fell among Thieves if not half dead yet lying sorely wounded like the Good Samaritan is pouring in Oyl and Wine and while he is so let not any of us be like him that passed by on the other side as all together unconcern'd or like him that only vouchsaf'd to look but offer'd nothing to relieve him in that distressed Case but let us all to our Capacities help to the quenching those common Flames and the allaying those threatning heats that have been so fatal to us and contribute our utmost in this most Christian Service some of us by Humility and Obedience others of us by Compassion and Condescension and all of us by our Prayers and Tears Lastly To this we must reckon our selves oblig'd by considering the Example of the Servants in the Text In servis habemus tam quod laudemus quam quod imitemur We have in the Servants both what is commendable and imitable They cleared themselves from a treacherous betraying the Trust repos'd in them of the Field by reporting to their Master the unexpected accident of the growth of the Tares they being inform'd that an Enemy had done it offer'd their service to redress the Mischief that if the Enemy entred the Field by their Sloth he might be expell'd by their Zeal St. Austin to that Inquiry Who is that Man that is eaten up with Zeal to Gods House Answers Qui omnia quae videt perversa satagit emendare That if he sees the foundation of it too narrow and strait will endeavour the inlargement of its basis to its due extent If he perceives an inconvenience in the fense incompassing the Field will consult such an Amendment of it as may neither keep out such as belong to Christs Fold nor suffer the wild Beast of the Field nor the wild Boar of the Wood neither Turk nor Pagan to enter in And that our Zeal in this may not be an Ignis Fatuus to precipitate us into unsafe and dangerous Methods that it may not be a feavorish heat that invades the Health and threatens the Life of that Body that cherishes it but that it may be a Coal kindled at Gods Altar let us with the Servants in the Text go to our Lord. So first not to be too much influenc'd by our Passions Solomon tells us Wrath is Cruel Anger is outragious and nothing can stand before Envy Pro. 27. 4. So as secondly Not to take our Measures from the Examples of others to return to them in proportion to those undue severities which at any time have been received from them the Rule of our Saviour Is not to do to others as they do but as we would have them do to our selves Let us therefore receive our Directions from Christ and acquiesce in them referring all to our Masters Will and then proceed according to his Dictates whose Service consists altogether in the following of his own Rules for in so doing we shall most promote our Masters Honour and be most servicable to his Field the Church and best provide that when we shall be translated from our Stations in his Kingdom here we may be made partakers of his Eternal Kingdom in Heaven and in the mean time God in his infinite Mercy so direct the Counsels and Influence the Hearts of Men that the Tares which at the Harvest shall be gathered may not in the mean time be able either to suppress the Wheat or destroy the Field and that our Lord Jesus who loved his Church and gave himself for it may Sanctify and Cleanse it and at last present it to Himself a Glorious Church without spot or blemish To Him with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour Glory and Praise both now and for evermore Amen FINIS