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
A43512	A briefe relation of the death and sufferings of the Most Reverend and renowned prelate, the L. Archbishop of Canterbury with a more perfect copy of his speech, and other passages on the scaffold, than hath beene hitherto imprinted.	Heylyn, Peter, 1600-1662.	1644 (1644)	Wing H1685; ESTC R212372	21,500	34

abundautly felt Now at last I am accused of High Treason in Parliament a Crime which my soule ever abhorred this Treason was charged to consist of these two parts An endeavouor to subvert the Lawes of the Land and a like Endeavur to overthrow the 〈◊〉 Protestant Religion Established by Law Besides my answers to the severall Charges I protested my Innocency in both Houses It was said Prisoners protestations at the Barre must not be taken I can bring no witnesse of my heart and the intentions thereof threfore I must come to my Protestation not at the Barre but my Protestation at this houre and instant of my death in which I hope all men will be such charitable Christians as not to thinke I would dye and dissemble being iustantly to give God an accompt for the truth of it I doe therefore here in the presence of God and his holy Angels take it upon my death That I never endeavoured the subversion either of Law or Religion and I desire you all to remember this Protest of mine for my Innocency in these and from all Treasons what soever I have beene accused likewise as an Enemy to Parliaments No I understand them and the benifit that comes by them too well to be so But I did mislike the misgovernments of some Parliaments many waies and I had good reason for it For Corruptio optimi est pessima there is no corruption in the world so bad as that which is of the best thing in it selfe for the better the thing is in nature the worse it is corrupted And that being the highest Court over which no other have Iurisdiction when 't is mis-informed or misgoverned the Subject is left without all remedy But I have done I forgive all the World all and every of those bitter Enemies which have persecuted me and humbly desire to be forgiven of God first and then of every man whether I have offended him or not if he doe but conceive that I have Lord doe thou forgive me and I begge forgivenesse of him And so I heartily desire you to joyne in Prayer with me O Eternall God and mercifull Father looke downe upon me in mercy in the Riches and fullnesse of all thy mercies look upon me but not till thou hast nailed my sinnes to the Crosse of Christ not till thou hast bathed me in the bloud of Christ not till I have hid my selfe in the wounds of Christ that so the punishment due unto my sinnes may passe over me And since thou art pleased to try me to the uttermost I humbly beseech thee give me now in this great instant full Patience proportionable Comfort and a heart ready to dye for thy Honour the King's happinesse and this Churches preservation And my zeale to these farre from Arrogancy be it spoken is all the sinne humane frailty excepted and all incidents thereto which is yet knowne to me in this particular for which I now come to suffer I say in this particular of Treason but otherwise my sinnes are many and great Lord pardon them all and those especially what ever they are which have drawne downe this present judgement upon me and when thou hast given me strength to beare it doe with me as seems best in thine owne eyes and carry me through death that I may looke upon it in what visage soever it shall appeare to me Amen And that there may be a stop of this issue of bloud in this more then miserable Kingdom I shall desire that I may pray for the people too aswell as for my selfe O Lord I beseech the give grace of Repentance to all Bloud-thirsty people but if they will not repent O Lord confound all their devices Defeat and Frustrate all their Designes and Endeavors upon them which are or shall be contrary to the Glory of thy great Name the truth and sincerity of Religion the establishment of the King and His Posterity after Him in their just Rights and Priviledges the Honour and Conservation of Parliaments in their just power the Preservation of this Poore Church in her Truth Peace and Patrimony and the settlement of this distracted and distressed People under their ancient Lawes and in their native Liberties And when thou hast done all this in meere mercy for them O Lord fill their hearts with thankefulnesse and with Religious dutifull obedience to thee and thy Commandements all their daies So Amen Lord Iesus Amen and receive my Soule into thy Bosome Amen Our Father which art c. The Speech and Prayers being ended he gave the Paper which he read unto Doctor Sterne desiring him to shew it to his other Chaplaines that they might know how he departed out of this world and so prayed God to shew his mercies and blessings on them And noting how one Hinde had employed himselfe in taking a Copy of his Speech as it came from his mouth he desired him not to doe him wrong in publishing a false or imperfect Copy Which as Hinde promised him to be carefull of calling for punishment from above if he should doe otherwise so hath he reasonably well performed his promise the Alterations or Additions which occurre therein being perhaps the worke of those who perused his Papers and were to Authorise them to the publicke view to fit it more unto the palat of the City faction and make it more consistent with the credit of those guilty men who had voted to his condemnation This done he next applied himselfe to the fatall Blocke as to the Haven of his rest But finding the way full of people who had placed themselves upon the Theatre to behold the Tragedy he desired he might have roome to dye beseeching them to let him have an end of his miseries which he had endured very long All which hee did with so serene and calme a minde as if he had beene rather taking order for another mans funerall then making way unto his owne Being come neare the Blocke he put off his doublet and used some words to this effect Gods will be done I am willing to goe out of this world no man can be more willing to send me out of it And seeing through the chinkes of the boards that some people were got under the Scaffold about the very place where the Blocke was seated he called on the Officers for some dust to stop them or to remove the people thence saying it was no part of his desires that his bloud should fall upon the heads of the People Never did man put off mortality with a brave courage nor looke upon his bloudy and malicious enemies with more Christian charity And thus farre he was gone in his way towards Paradise with such a Primitive magnanimity as equalled if not exceeded the example of ancient martyrs When he was somwhat interrupted in his quiet passage by one Sir Iohn Clotworthy a fire-brand brought from Ireland by the Earle of Warwicke to increase the Combustions in this Kingdome Who finding that the mockings and

Heart and yet I thanke God I have not found among the many any one sinne which deserves death by any knowne Law of this Kingdome And yet hereby I charge nothing upon my Iudges for if they proceed upon proofe by valuable witnesses I or any other innocent may be justly condemned And I thanke God though the weight of the sentence lye heavie upon me I am as quiet within as ever I was in my life And though I am not only the first Archbishop but the first man that ever dyed by an Ordinance of Parliament yet some of my Predecessors have gone this way though not by this meanes For Elphegus was hurried away and lost his head by the Danes and Symon Sudbury in the fury of Wat Tyler and his fellowes Before these Saint Jon Baptist had his head danced off by a lewd woman and Saint Cyprian Archbishop of Carthage submitted his head to a persecuting Sword Many Examples great and good and they teach me patience for I hope my Cause in Heaven will looke of another dye then the colour that is put upon it here And some comfort it is to me not only that I goe the way of these great men in their severall generations but also that my Charge as fowle as 't is made lookes like that of the Jewes against Saint Paul Acts. 25.3 For he was accused for the Law and the Temple i. e. Religion And like that of Saint Stephen Acts 6.14 for breaking the Ordinances which Moses gave i. e. Law and Religion the holy place and the Temple verse 13. But you will say doe I then compare my selfe with the integrity of Saint Paul and Saint Stephen No farre be that from me I only raise a comfort to my selfe that these great Saints and Servants of God were laid at in their times as I am now And 't is memorable that Saint Paul who helped on this Accusation against Saint Stephen did after fall under the very same himselfe Yea but here 's a great Clamour that I would have brought in Popery I shall Answer that more fully by and by In the meane time you know what the Pharises said against Christ himselfe If we let him alone all men will beleive in him Et venient Romani and the Romans will come and take away both our place and the Nation Here was a causelesse Cry against Christ that the Romans will come And see how just the judgement of God was they crucified Christ for feare lest the Romans should come and his death was it which brought in the Romans upon them God punishing them with that which they most feared and I pray God this Clamour of Venient Romani of which I have given no cause helpe not to bring them in for the Pope never had such a Harvest in England since the Reformation as he hath now upon the Sects and Divisions that are amongst us In the meane time by Honour and dishonour by good report and evill report as a deceiver and yet true am I passing through this world 2 Cor. 6.8 Some particulars also I thinke it not amisse to speake of And first this I shall be bold to speake of the King our gracious Soveraign He hath bin much traduced also for bringing in of Popery but on my Conscience of which I shall give God a very present accompt I know Him to be as free from this Charge as any man living and I hold Him to be as sound a Protestant according to the Religion by Law established as any man in this Kingdome And that he will venture His Life as farre and as freely for it and I thinke I doe or should know both His affection to Religion and his grounds for it as fully as any man in England The second particular is concerning this great and Populous City which God blesse Here hath beene of late a fashion taken up to gather hands and then goe to the Great Court of this Kingdome the Parliament and clamour for Iustice as if that great and wise Court before whom the Causes come which are unknowne to the many could not or would not doe Iustice but at their appointment A way which may endanger many an Innocent man and plucke his bloud upon their owne heads and perhaps upon the Citie 's also And this hath beene lately practised against my selfe the Magistrates standing still and suffering them openly to proceed from Parish to Parish without checke God forgive the setters of this with all my heart I begge it but many well meaning People are caught by it In Saint Stephen's case when nothing else would serve they stirred up the People against him and Herod went the same way when he had killed Saint James yet he would not venture upon Saint Peter till he found how the other pleased the People But take heed of having your hands full of bloud for there is a time best knowne to himselfe when God above other sinnes makes Inquisition for bloud and when that Inquisition is on foot the Psalmest tells us That God remembers but that 's not all He remembers and forgits not the Complaint of the Poore that is whose bloud it shed by oppression vers. 9. take heed of this 'T is a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the living God but then especially when he is making Inquisition for bloud And with my Prayers to avert it I doe heartily desire this City to remember the Prophesy that is expressed Jer. 26.15 The third particular is the poore Church of England It hath flourished and beene a shelter to other neighbouring Churches when stormes have driven upon them But alas now 't is in a storme it selfe and God onely knowes whether or how it shall get out and which is worse then a storme from without it 's become like an Oake cleft to shivers with wedges made out of it's owne body and at every cleft prophanenesse and Irreligion is entring in while as Prosper speakes in his second Book De vitae contemptu cap. 4. Men that introduce prophanenesse are cloaked over with the name Religionis Imaginariae of Imaginary Religion for we have lost the Substance and dwell to much in Opinion and that Church which all the Iesuits machinations could not ruine is fallen into danger by her owne The last particular for I am not willing to be too long is my selfe I was borne and baptized in the bosome of the Church of England established by Law in that profession I have ever since lived and in that I come now to dye This is no time to dissemble with God least of all in matter of Religion and therefore I desire it may be remembred I have alwaies lived in the Protestant Religion established in England and in that I come now to dye What Clamours and Slanders I have endured for labouring to keepe a Vniformity in the externall service of God according to the Doctrine and Discipline of this Church all men know and I have