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	prince_n	queen_n	3,203	5	6.8163	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44583	Advice to a daughter as to religion, husband, house, family and children, behaviour and conversation, friendship, censure, vanity and affectation, pride, diversions : to which is added The character of a trimmer, as to the laws and government, Protestant religion, the papists, forreign affairs / by the late noble M. of H..; Lady's New-Year's gift	Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of, 1633-1695.; Coventry, William, Sir, 1628?-1686.	1699 (1699)	Wing H290; ESTC R9539	80,252	294

enough to serve themselves even at the price of destroying the Fundamental Constitution that it broke but into a Flame which before it could be quenched had almost reduc'd the Nation ro Ashes Amongst the miserable Effects of that unnatural War none hath been more fatal to us than the forcing our Princes to breathe in another Air and to receive the early impressions of a Foreign Education the Barbari●y of the English towards the King and the Royal Family might very well tempt him to think the better of every thing he found abroad and might naturally produce more gentleness at least towards a Religion by which he was hospitably received at the same time that he was thrown off and Persecuted by the Protestants tho his own Subjects to aggravate the Offence The Queen Mother as generally Ladies do with Age grew most devout and earnest in her Religion and besides the temporal Rewards of getting larger Subsidies from the French Clergy she had Motives of another kind to perswade her to shew her Zeal and since by the Roman Dispensatory a Soul converted to the Church is a Soveraign Remedy and lays up a mighty stock of merit she was solicitous to secure her self in all Events and therefore first set upon the Duke of Glocester who depended so much upon her good will that she might for that reason have been induc'd to believe the Conquest would not be difficult but it so fell out that he either from his own Constancy or that he had those near him by whom he was otherways advis'd chose rather to run away from her importunity than by staying to bear the continual weight of it It is belie v'd she had better success with another of her Sons who if he was not quite brought off from our Religion at least such beginnings were made as made them very easie to be finish'd his being of a generous and aspiring Nature and in that respect less patient in the drudgery of Arguing might probably help to recommend a Church to him that exempts the Laity from the vexation of enquiring perhaps he might tho by mistake look upon that Religion as more favourable to the enlarged Power of Kings a consideration which might have its weight with a young Prince in his warm blood and that was brought up in Arms. I cannot hinder my self from a small digression to consider with admiration that the old Lady of Rome with all her wrinkles should yet have charms able to subdue great Princes so far from handsom and yet so imperious so painted and yet so pretending after having abus'd depos'd and murther'd so many of her Lovers she still finds others glad and proud of their new Chains a thing so strange to indifferent Judges that those who will allow no other Miracles in the Church of Rome must needs grant that this is one not to be contested she sits in her Shop and sells at dear Rates her Rattles and her Hobby-Horses whilst the deluded World still continues to furnish her with Customers But whither am I carried with this Contemplation it is high time to return to my Text and to consider the wonderful manner of the Kings coming home again led by the hand of Heaven and called by the Voice of his own People who receiv'd him if possible with Joys equal to the Blessing of Peace and Union which his Restauration brought along with it by this there was an end put to the hopes some might have abroad of making use of his less happy Circumstances to throw him into foreign Interests and Opinions which had been wholly inconsistent with our Religion our Laws and all other things that are dear to us yet for all this some of those Tinctures and impressions might so far remain as tho' they were very innocent in him yet they might have ill effects here by softning the Animosity which seems necessary to the Defender of the Protestant Faith in opposition to such a powerful and irreconcileable an Enemy You may be sure that among all the sorts of Men who apply'd themselves to the King at his first coming home for his Protection the Papists were not the last nor as they fain would have flatter'd themselves the least welcome having their past Sufferings as well as their present Professions to recommend them and there was something that look'd like a particular Consideration of them since it so happened that the Indulgence promised to Dissenters at Breda was carried on in such a manner that the Papists were to divide with them and tho' the Parliament notwithstanding its Resignation to the Crown in all things rejected with scorn and anger a Declaration fram'd for this purpose yet the Birth and steps of it gave such an alarm that Mens suspicious once raised were not easily laid asleep again To omit other things the breach of the Tripple League and the Dutch War with its appurtenances carried Jealousies to the highest pitch imaginable and fed the hopes of one Party and the fears of the Other to such a degree that some Critical Revolutions were generally expectad when the ill success of that War and the Sacrifice France thought fit to make of the Papists here to their own interest abroad gave them another Check and the Act of enjoyning the Test to all in Offices was thought to be no ill Bargain to the Nation tho' bought at the Price of 1200000 pound and the Money apply'd to continue the War against the Dutch than which nothing could be more unpopular or less approved Notwithstanding the discouragements Popery is a Plant that may be mowed down but the Root will still remain and in spite of the Laws it will sprout up grow again especially if it should happen that there should be Men in Power who in weeding it out of our Garden will take care to Cherish and keep it alive and tho' the Law for excluding them from Places of Trust was tolerably kept as to their outward Form yet there were many Circumstances which being improved by the quick-sighted Malice of ill affected Men did help to keep up the World in their suspicions and to blow up Jealousies to such a heighth both in and out of Parliament that the remembrance of them is very unpleasant and the Example so extravagant that it is to be hop'd nothing in our Age like it will be re-attempted but to come closer to the Case in question in this Condition we stand with the Papists what shall now be done according to our Trimmer's Opinion in order to the better Bearing this grievance since as I have said before there is no hopes of being entirely free from it Papists we must have among us and if their Religion keep them from bringing honey to the Hive let the Government try at least by gentle means to take away the Sting from them The first Foundation to be laid is that a distinct Consideration is to be had of the Popish Clergy who have such an eternal Interest against all accommodation

noxious Humours without calling Foreign Drugs to her Assistance So it looks like want of health in a Church when instead of depending upon the power of that Truth which it holds and the good Examples of them that teach it to support it self and to suppress Errors it should have a perpetual recourse to the secular Authority and even upon the slightest occasions Our Trimmer has his Objections to the too busy diligence and to the over-doing of some of the dissenting Clergy and he does as little approve of those of our Church who wear God Almighty's Liveries as some old Warders in the Tower do the King 's who do nothing in their place but receive their Wages for it he thinks that the Liberty of the late times gave men so much Light and diffused it so universally amongst the people that they are not now to be dealt with as they might have been in Ages of less enquiry and therefore in some well chosen and dearly beloved Auditories good resolute Nonsense back'd with Authority may prevail yet generally Men are become so good Judges of what they hear that the Clergy ought to be very wary how they go about to impose upon their Understandings which are grown less humble than they were in former times when the Men in black had made Learning such a sin in the Laity that for fear of offending they made a Conscience of being able to read but now the World is grown sawcy and expects Reasons and good ones too before they give up their own Opinions to other Mens Dictates tho never so Magisterially deliver'd to them Our Trimmer is far from approving the Hypocricie which seems to be the reigning Vice amongst some of the Dissenting Clergy he thinks it the most provoking sin Men can be guilty of in Relation to Heaven and yet which may seem strange that very sin which shall destroy the Soul of the Man who preaches may help to save those of the Company that hear him and even those who are cheated by the false Ostentation of his strictness of life may by that Pattern be encouraged to the real Practice of those Christian Vertues which he does so deceitfully profess so that the detestation of this fault may possibly be carry'd on too far by our own Orthodox Divines if they think it cannot be enough express'd without bending the Stick another way a dangerous Method and a worse Extream for Men of that Character who by going to the outmost line of Christian Liberty will certainly encourage others to go beyond it No Man does less approve the ill-bred Methods of some of the Dissenters in rebuking Authority who behave themselves as if they thought ill manners necessary to Salvation yet he cannot but distinguish and desire a Mean between the sawcyness of some of the Scotch Apostles and the undecent Courtship of some of the Silken Divines who one would think do practice to bow at the Altar only to learn to make the better Legs at Court Our Trimmer approves the Principles of our Church that Dominion is not founded in Grace and that our Obedience is to be given to a Popish King in other things at the same time that our Compliance with him in his Religion is to be deny'd yet he cannot but think it a very extraordinary thing if a Protestant Church should by a voluntary Election chuse a Papist for their Guardian and receive Directions for supporting their Religion from one who must believe it a Mortal Sin not to endeavour to destroy it such a refined piece of Breeding would not seem to be very well plac'd in the Clergy who will hardly find Presidents to justify such an extravagant piece of Courtship and which is so unlike the Primitive Methods which ought to be our Pattern he hath no such unreasonable tenderness for any sorts of Men as to expect their faults should not be impartially laid open as often as they give occasion for it and yet he cannot but smile to see that the same Man who sets up all the Sails of his Rhetorick to fall upon Dissenters when Popery is to be handled he does it so gingerly that he looketh like an Ass mumbling of Thistles so afraid he is of letting himself loose where he may be in danger of etting his Duty get the better of his Discretion Our Trimmer is far from relishing the impertinent Wandrings of those who pour out long Prayers upon the Congregation and all from their own Stock which God knows for the most part is a barren Soil which produces Weeds instead of Flowers and by this means they expose Religion it self rather than promote Mens Devotions On the other side there may be too great Restraint put upon Men whom God and Nature hath distinguished from their Fellow Labourers by blessing them with a happier Talent and by giving them not only good Sense but a powerful Utterance too has enabled them to gush out upon the attentive Auditory with a mighty stream of Devout and unaffected Eloquence when a Man so qualified endued with Learning too and above all adorn'd with a good Life breaks out into a warm and well deliver'd Prayer before his Sermon it has the appearance of a Divine Rapture he raises and leads the Hearts of the Assembly in another manner than the most Compos'd or best Studied Form of Set Words can ever do and the Pray-wees who serve up all their Sermons with the same Garnishing would look like so many Statues or Men of Straw in the Pulpit compar'd with those who speak with such a powerful Zeal that Men are tempted at the moment to belive Heaven it self has dictated their words to em Our Trimmer is not so unreasonably indulgent to the Dissenters as to excuse the Irregularities of their Complaints and to approve their threatning Stiles which are so ill-suited to their Circumstances as well as their Duty he would have them to shew their Grief and not their Anger to the Government and by such a Submission to Authority as becomes them if they cannot acquiesce in what is imposed let them deserve a Legislative Remedy to their Sufferings there being no other way to give them perfect redress and either to seek it or pretend to give it by any other Method would not only be vain but Criminal too in those that go about it yet with all this there may in the mean time be a prudential Latitude left as to the manner of preventing the Laws now in force against them The Government is in some degree answerable for such an Administration of them as may be free from the Censure of Impartial Judges and in order to that it would be necessary that one of these methods be pursued either to let loose the Laws to their utmost extent without any Moderation or Restraint in which at least the Equality of the Government would be without Objection the Penalties being exacted without Remission from the Dissenters of all kinds or if that will not be done and

indeed there is no reason it should there is a necessity of some connivance to the Protestant Dissenters to execute that which in Humanity must be allowed to the Papists even without any leaning towards them which must be supposed in those who are or shall be in the administration of publick Business and it will follow that according to our Circumstances the distribution of such connivance must be made in such a manner that the greatest part of it may fall on the Protestant side or else the Objections will be so strong and the Inferences so clear that the Friends as well as the Enemies of the Crown will be sure to take hold of them It will not be sufficient to say that the Papists may be conniv'd at because they are good Subiects and that the Protestant Dissenters must suffer because they are ill ones these general Maxims will not convince discerning Men neither will any late Instances make them forget what passed at other times in the World both sides have had their Turns in being good and ill Subjects And therefore 't is easie to imagine what suspicions would arise in the present conjuncture if such a partial Argument as this should be impos'd upon us the truth is this Matter speaks so much of it self that it is not only unnecessary but it may be unmannerly to say any more of it Our Trimmer therefore could wish that since notwithstanding the Laws which deny Churches to say Mass in even not only the Exercise but also the Ostentation of Popery is as well or better performed in the Chappels of so many Foreign Ministers where the English openly resort in spight of Proclamations and Orders of Council which are grown to be as harmless things to them as the Popes Bulls and Excommunications are to Hereticks who are out of his reach I say he could wish that by a seasonable as well as an equal piece of Justice there might be so much consideration had of the Protestant Dissenters as that there might be at sometimes and at some places a Veil thrown over an Innocent and retired Conventicle and that such an Indulgence might be practic'd with less prejudice to the Church or diminution to the Laws it might be done so as to look rather like a kind Omission to enquire more strictly than an allow'd Toleration of that which is against the Rule established Such a skilful hand as this is very Necessary in our Circumstances and the Government by making no sort of Men entirely desperate does not only secure it self from Villainous attempts but lays such a Foundation for healing and uniting Laws when ever a Parliament shall meet that the Seeds of Differences and Animosities between the several contending sides may Heaven consenting be for ever destroy'd The Trimmer's Opinion concerning the Papists TO speak of Popery leads me into such a Sea of Matter that it is not easie to forbear launching into it being invited by such a fruitful Theme and by a variety never to be exhausted but to confine it to the present Subject I will only say a short word of the Religion it self of its influences here at this time and of our Trimmer's Opinion in Relation to our manner of living with them If a Man would speak Maliciously of this Religion one may say it is like those Diseases where as long as one drop of the infection remains there is still danger of having the whole Mass of Blood corrupted by it In Swedeland there was an absolute cure and nothing of Popery heard of till Queen Christiana whether mov'd by Arguments of this or the other World may not be good Manners to enquire thought fit to change her Religion and Country and to live at Rome where she might find better judges of her Virtues and less ungentle Censures of those Princely Liberties to which she was sometimes disposed than she left at Stockholme where the good breeding is as much inferior to that of Rome in general as the Civility of the Religion The Cardinals having rescued the Church from those Clownish Methods the Fishermen had first introduc'd and mended that Pattern so effectually that a Man of that Age if he should now come into the World would not possibly know it In Denmark the Reformation was entire in some States of Germany as well as Geneva the Cure was universal but in the rest of the World where the Protestant Religion took place the Popish humour was too tough to be totally expell'd and so it was in England tho' the Change was made with all the advantage imaginable to the Reformation it being Countenanc'd and introduc'd by Legal Authority and by that means might have been perhaps as perfect as in any other Place if the short Reign of Edward the 6th and the succession of a Popish Queen had not given such advantage to that Religion that it has subsisted ever since under all the hardships that have been put upon it it has been a strong Compact Body and made the more so by these Sufferings it was not strong enough to prevail but it was able with the help of foreign support to carry on an Interest which gave the Crown trouble and to make a considerable not to say dangerous Figure in the Nation so much as this could not have been done without some hopes nor these hopes kept up without some reasonable grounds In Queen Elizabeth's time the Spanish Zeal for their Religion and the Revenge for 88 gave warmth to the Papists here and above all the Right of the Queen of Scots to suceeed was while she lived sufficient to give them a better prospect of their Affairs In King James's time their hopes were supported by the Treaty of the Spanish Match and his gentleness towards them which they were ready to interpret more in their own Favour than was either reasonable or became them so little tenderness they have even where it is most due if the Interest of their Religion comes in competition with it As for the late King tho he gave the most Glorious Evidence that ever Man did of his being a Protestant yet by the more than ordinary Influence the Queen was thought to have over him and it so happening that the greatest part of his Anger was directed against the Puritans there was such an advantage to Men dispos'd to suspect that they were ready to interpret it a leaning towards Popery without which handle it was Morally impossible that the ill-affected part of the Nation could ever have seduc'd the rest into a Rebellion That which help'd to confirm many well meaning Men in their Misapprehensions of the King was the long and unusual intermission of Parliaments so that every year that passad without one made up a new Argument to increase their Suspicion and made them presume that the Papists had a principal hand in keeping them off This raised such Heats in Mens Minds to think that Men who were obnoxious to the Laws instead of being punished should have Credit

from the Religion established Temporal things will have their weight in the World and tho Zeal may prevail for a time and get the better in a Skirmish yet the War ends generally on the side of Flesh and Blood and will do so till Mankind is another thing than it is at present And therefore a wise Papist in cold Blood considering these and many other Circumstances which 't will be worth his pains to see if he can unmuffle himself from the Mask of Infallibility will think it reasonable to set his imprison'd Senses at Liberty and that he has a right to see with his own Eyes hear with his own Ears and judge by his own Reason the consequence of which might probably be that weighing things in a right Scale and seeing them in their true Colours he would distinguish between the merit of suffering for a good Cause and the foolish ostentation of drawing inconveniencies upon himself and therefore will not be unwilling to be convinc'd that our Protestant Creed may make him happy in the other World and the easier in this A few of such wise Proselytes would by their Example draw so many after them that the Party would insensibly melt away and in a little time without any angry word we should come to an Union that all Good Men would have Reason to rejoyce at but we are not to presume upon these Conversions without preparing Men for them by kind and reconciling Arguments nothing is so against our Nature as to believe those can be in the right who are too hard upon us there is a deformity in every thing that doth us hurt it will look scurvily in our Eye while the smart continues and a Man must have an extraordinary Measure of Grace to think well of a Religion that reduces him and his Family to Misery in this respect our Trimmer would consent to the mitigation of such Laws as were made as it 's said King Henry VIII got Queen Elizabeth in a heat against Rome It may be said that even States as well as private Men are subject to Passion a just indignation of a villainous Attempt produces at the same time such Remedies as perhaps are not without some mixture of Revenge and therefore tho time cannot Repeal a Law it may by a Natural Effect soften the Execution of it there is less danger to Rouse a Lyon when at Rest than to awake Laws that were intended to have their time of Sleeping nay more than that in some cases their Natural periods of Life dying of themselves without the Solemnity of being revoked any otherwise than by the common consent of Mankind who do cease to Execute when the Reasons in great Measure fail that first Created and Justifyed the Rigour of such unusual Penalties Our Trimmer is not eager to pick out some places in History against this or any other Party quite contrary is very sollicitous to find out any thing that may be healing and tend to an Agreement but to prescribe the means of this Gentleness so as to make it effectual must come from the only place that can furnish Remedies for this Cure viz. a Parliament in the mean time it is to be wished there may be such a mutual calmness of Mind as that the Protestants might not be so jealous as still to smell the Match that was to blow up the King and both Houses in the Gunpowder Treason or to start at every appearance of Popery as if it were just taking Possession On the other side let not the Papists suffer themselves to be led by any hopes tho never so flattering to a Confidence or Ostentation which must provoke Men to be less kind to them let them use Modesty on their sides and the Protestants Indulgence on theirs and by this means there will be an overlooking of all Venial Faults a tacit connivanee at all things that do not carry Scandal with them and would amount to a kind of Natural Dispensation with the the severe Laws since there would be no more Accusers to be found when the occasions of Anger and Animosity are once remov'd let the Papists in the mean time remember that there is a respect due from all lesser numbers to greater a deference to be paid by an Opinion that is Exploded to one that is Established such a Thought well digested will have an influence upon their Behaviour and produce such a Temper as must win the most eager Adversaries out of their ill Humour to them and give them a Title to all the Favour that may be consistent with the Publick Peace and Security The Trimmer's Opinion in Relation to things abroad THE World is so compos'd that it is hard if not impossible for a Nation not to be a great deal involv'd in the fate of their Neighbours and tho by the felicity of our Scituation we are more Independant than any other People yet we have in all Ages been concern'd for our own sakes in the Revolutions abroad There was a time when England was the over-ballancing Power of Christendom and that either by Inheritance or Conquest the better part of France receiv'd Laws from us after that we being reduc'd into our own Limits France and Spain became the Rivals for the Universal Monarchy and our third Power tho in it self less than either of the other hapned to be Superiour to any of them by that choice we had of throwing the Scales on that side to which we gave our Friendship I do not know whether this Figure did not make us as great as our former Conquest to be a perpetual Umpire of two great contending Powers who gave us all their Courtship and offer'd all their Incense at our Altar whilst the Fate of either Prince seemed to depend upon the Oracles we delivered for the King of England to sit on his Throne as in the Supream Court of Justice to which the two great Monarchs appeal pleading their Cause and expecting their Sentence declaring which side was in the right or at least if we pleas'd which side should have the better of it was a piece of Greatness which was peculiar to us and no wonder if we endeavour to preserve it as we did for a considerable time it being our Safety as well as Glory to maintain it but by a Fatality upon our Councils or by the refin'd Policy of this latter Age we have thought fit to use industry to destroy this mighty Power which we have so long enjoyed and that equality between the Two Monarchs which we might for ever have preserved has been chiefly broken by us whose Interest it was above all others to maintain it when one of them like the overflowing of the Sea had gained more upon the other than our convenience or indeed our safety would allow instead of mending the Banks or making new ones we our selves with our own hands helpt to cut them to invite and make way for a farther Inundation France and Spain have had their several