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	subject_n	3,995	5	6.4954	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92025	A reply to the answer of Anonymus to Doctor Gauden's Analysis of the sense of the covenant: and under that, to a later tract of one Mr Zach. Crofton of the same fraternity with him. By John Rowland Oxoniensis, CCC. Rector of Footscray in Kent.	Rowland, John, 1606-1660.	1660 (1660)	Wing R2070; Thomason E1038_4; ESTC R207862	40,193	52

thread what do you then prattle so much of the strength of your Covenant which is far better broken than kept and if the Covenanters had brought His Majesty to his Crown they could have been no more importunate for their Covenant than they are when as it is manifest that it was not the Presbyterians that effected this great Work but it was the apparent hand of God by making use of such Instruments as he thought good the Noble Valiant Discreet General Monk and the prudent and well-advised Lord Major of London Sir Tho. Alleyn Sir Geor. Booth Sir Tho. Middleton Alderman Robinson and some other persons of note and eminency who were no ill friends to the Episcopal Government that the Presbytery have no reason to lay all the claim to what they did but they must needs allow us to have as great an interest in them as themselves for these are persons of a sublimer judgement and are equally enclined to do justice to all not byassed by any factions or surely God would never have prospered the work in their hands Rex Jupiter ommibus idem In your Covenant there was contained renouncing of Popery and Superstition Preservation of His Majesties Person c. and what Reasons then could the Scholars of Oxford give that they should not take this If as the words sound in common apprehension of them they are very good but if they must be read backward or be construed another way and signifie nothing else but a trapanning of Subjects to disobedience against their lawful Soveraign and breaking of his Laws why should any man that had unadvisedly taken it be so strongly obliged to keep it In casting dirt upon that Covenant which His present Gracious Majesty hath so highly honored c. You are resolved it seems to hold His Majesty to it but if it shall not stand with His Majesties Honor you are none of the best Subjects to press it upon him taking advantage of his then sad condition but we hope that you returning to your due Obedience to which you are strongly bound by the Laws of God and man and calling to minde your former Loyal Oathes that you will confess that you had no lawful Authority to impose such a Covenant upon his Gracious Majesty and therefore will of your own accord freely absolve him from it or you know and then it will be no thanks to you that the King and Parliament as you grant before can disanul and abrogate former Oathes and Contracts or else you will charge some with perjury which you dare not to name You tell us that the Kingdom of Scotland entred into a Solemn Covenant amongst themselves without their King before their joyning with England in this and the King and Parliament of England upon a through Debate theneof declared though at first they resolved to chastise them with a puissant Army That our Brethren of Scotland had done nothing but what became Loyal and Obedient Subjects c. It is very credible that some of your Brethren of Scotland first taught you this Covenanting way and there were too many in England confederate with them and if the King and Parliament at first so highly offended did afterwards to avoid civil Dissentions and shedding of blood compose the Differences in an amiable way yet God who sees the hearts of all men would not suffer such Rebellion to go long unpunished but chastised them severely soon after by the hand of Oliver Cromwel who made a full Conquest wasted and ruined what he pleased and brought them into irrecoverable bondage had it not pleased God at length to set them free by the most happy Return of His Excellent Majesty Charles the Second to His just Inheritance and therefore I hope the Scots will not prove so ungratefull to Him but as good Subjects being now set at liberty by Him leave off their Covenanting amongst themselves without His consent and submit to His Royal Government as their duty bindes them You tell us of Queen Elizabeth and King James both of blessed memories assisting the Netherlands combined not onely without but against the unjust violence of Philip the Second of Spain first and chiefly in matters of Religion and entring into League with them as Free States which was afterward continued by His late Majesty And why not of blessed Memory as you said of the two former Princes in his Expedition for the Relief of Rochel and Alliance with the Prince of Orange That Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles all of blessed Memories did assist the Netherlands being then poor distressed States oppressed in their Consciences by the King of Spain all the world knows sufficiently for by this means they are grown from a poor contemptible condition to be the Potent Hoogen Mogens the High and Mighty Lords of Holland and West-Friezland c. which hath cost the best blood of Subjects that England had besides multitudes of Gentry and Commons that lost their lives in their defence The Netherlands were under Philip King of Spain indeed but they state the Case far otherwise than it was or is with us in England how rightly they best know But how far and upon what grounds of Religion and Policy Princes may afford Relief to Subjects of other Princes that are oppressed and enslaved by them especially for Conscience sake is too long to dispute now certain I am that the Netherlands were bound in the sight of God and man to a great measure of thankfulness to the Kings and Queen of England for their Assistance and by consequence to their Successors and subjects but whether they did shew it to His late Majesty during the Wars in England or to His Royal Issue in their exile amongst them and to such poor subjects as followed them I know is a question easily to be resolved Thus I have given you some Pattern of Covenanting Christians besides the holy League in France Why Sir what Patterns are they when you speak of the Netherlands you mention no Covenant they took but say they combined together but your Patterns are you say the two Houses of Parliament in England and your Brethren in Scotland Surely the man is besides himself The Doctor complains of your Scotch Covenant and that which was set forth by the two Houses of Parliament without the Kings consent and he saith further that there were never any such Covenanting Christians heard of untill the Papists covenanted together to destroy the French Protestants and if you have any other Patterns to produce he challengeth you to do it In answer whereto you say idem per idem your Patterns are the two Houses of Parliament and our Brethren of Scotland the Boys in the streets will hiss at you You adde that you forbear to mention Germany the Cantons the Albigenses and others because you had said enough already when as you had said just nothing and what you now say is as ridiculous as the former You will not mention Germany c. when

not his Argument hold water if there were not such Scripture for it Reason it self will evince what he contends for either in Monarchical Aristocratical or Aeconomical Policy Do but judge whether it be fit for such servants or wives to vow a Covenant without nay against the consent of those under whose charge they are would you be content your Relations should deal so with you when they are to be guided by you to resolve to do what they please are you not ready to shake hands with the Church of Rome now which you would have us to believe you are such a great enemy to you run away from them you think and yet for want of discretion you run almost always in their mouthes Let your wife son or daughter vow to leave you and go into a Monastery and ask a Roman Priest or Jesuite whether they may do it without your consent and he shall tell you it is not in your power to hinder them though it be against your express prohibition And do you not see now that your Covenant made without the Kings consent was first forged in the Popes Consistory The way you go is to make divisions in all Countreys and Families to cause all that should obey to rebel against their Governours But how doth that Text make against Doctor Gauden you say the Text speaks onely of a vow made by a man and that all such vows are binding If a man vow a vow unto the Lord c. Here is not the least exception no not of a son under his father but all men that vow are by God holden unto it whether the chief Governour consent or not it is onely the vow of a woman in her minority or matrimony which may be made void But what if they vow things unlawful contrary to the will of him who hath the rule over them as the Covenant is said to be I understand not your Divinity What if a woman being a Pagan vow to serve God who can make her Vow void surely no man so then the more ado you keep to justifie your un-warrantable Covenant to destroy the Church-Government amongst us of which the King is and ought to be the chief Overseer and Ruler you do but hamper and intangle your self the faster You would fain justifie your Covenant though it were taken and prest upon your fellow subjects over whom I know no authority you have without the Kings consent is not this to wrest the Scepter out of the Kings hand will you make Kings like the Log you speak of which fell from Jupiter that such croaking frogs may leap upon at pleasure Are Kings placed by God to let those that should obey rule over them Kings are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Shepherds of the People Now what if the sheep should covenant to run away to the wolves as you did do you think it is fit for the shepherd to let them do it if he can stop them But you will needs make your selves supream Governors and the King and the rest of his subjects must be under you But why I pray must not the kings consent be first ask'd obtain'd by lawful means before you obtruded your Covenant upon his subjects which was to maintain the true Protestant Religion and his Majesty was the King so bad a Christian as not to suffer his subjects to joyn together to maintain the true Protestant Religion or was he so careless of his own safety that he would deny them leave to covenant for his defence no such matter But the King saw the Hook though your Bait was cunningly laid he discerned the sad and tragick Effects were like to follow it if Episcopal Government should be ruined by you would not consent whereupon you had no way to effect your purpose but by the eccho and noise of the times and the midwifery of tumults and Armies You call this notorious untruths nothing but impudence and therefore you will pass through this mire without answering Answer him indeed you cannot and if you think to pass through let me tell you plainly you will stick fast and are in danger to be drowned in it and therefore my advice is that you make haste back again before you pass any further The Covenant interpreted against all Episcopacy must needs grieve some and pierce to the quick those former lawful Oathes where he takes it for granted that the Covenant is not lawful and think you that others do not take it so as well as he not onely of Allegiance and Supremacie and Canonical obedience but that of the King a his Corona ion and there can be no superfetation of such a cont any Vow and Covenant without apparent perjury And what have you to say against this You say suppose the Covenant were against all Episcopacy All Episcopacy what against primitive Episcopacy which you allow of and think it to be Presbyterie But what need that supposition now if you take Episcopacy as it was here established which you vowed to extirpate But you will never leave your equivocations What is that to the Oath of Supremacie and Allegiance to his Majestie can no man be true to Kings but he that is for Bishops Surely it is something to the Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacie for subjects to rule and to make the King stand for a cypher But why to Kings it seems you were stumbled and would shift it off upon the ubjects of other Kings that have no Bishops but you have left it inde inite which answers to a universal and therefore it includes the King of Great Brittain as well as the rest so then he that takes your Covenant cannot in that be true to Kings that is to say all Kings unless he be for Bishops because it is a Church-Government confirmed by the Kings Laws here In other kingdoms where Bishops are not the case is not the same yet I wish all Protestant Kings and Princes were so happy as to erect Episcopacy within their Dominions The valiant King of Denmark's resolution was when the Swede besieged Copenhagen if I rightly understand the meaning of what I read that he then promised that if it pleased God to give him the Victory he would make his Scholars bear their proportion with his Nobles I can give it no other interpretation but serting up of Lords Bishops in his countrey But as for the kingdom of England you know what King James spake prophetically No Bishop no King and it proved too true for no sooner were my Lords the Bishops cast down and the Archbishop beheaded but immediately it fell sore upon the King himself even to the loss of his life though the Covenant ran for his preservation Dr. Doubtless the sense of the Covenant hath lately quickned many mens cosciences in their Allegiance to the King so to bring him as David home with infince joy and triumph I think the Doctor hath pleased you now for you grow presently very high in your own

Government and back what they say by Scripture good Authority by Reason and Examples and we shall draw the parallel against Presbytery and then let every man be judge which of the two hath most cause to be covenanted against and if they please to enumerate the Benefits of their Presbyterial Government we shall do the like for Bishops the work would be large and worth the while to be undertaken to reconcile the Differences in Church Discipline and to give better satisfaction to the Christian world I shall now to avoid prolixtry speak a word or two only of the benefits of Episcopacy for the faults it is obnoxious to are not essential to the Government but meerly accidental First then it is more orderly regular and uniform and by consequence more free from schisms sects heresies and whatsoever mischief may gather to a head for want of good order 2. It is more decent graceful and more consistent with Monarchy a poor creeping Clergy is not comely in Christian Princes Courts who will seem always to upbraid them to their faces as if they were not willing to be at any cost for the preaching of the Gospel whereas the best Kings and Emperors as Constantine Theodosius and others sought still how with rich endowments to beautifie and adorn them Moses and Aaron must be together the King and the Priest the Crown and the Miter the Princes Scepter and the Bishops Crosier or else the Scepter will be soon made to stoop to the Presbyterian Ferula 3. It is greater encouragement to Learning and Religion Take away the reward of Vertue and you do what you can to take away Goodness itself Pramia si tollas tollitur virtus but I must not let my pen run to a volumn 4. Consider that many Reformed Churches are in misery and ready to be swallowed up continually by Popish and cruel Adversaries what can the Presbyterian party do to afford them any help surely little or none whereas when our Church flourishen under the Bishops the Protestants abroad in all places lived in more repose and quiet and found continual assistance from them insomuch that their foes did hardly dare to make any head against them and I doubt not but they will conress how sensible they have been since these troubles of the great loss they have of Prelacy in England by whose wariness and continual care of them as well as of their charge at home they were always fostered and preserved since the Reformation What horrid persecutions have fallen upon them since the expelling of our Bishops here let the Waldenses and the Albigenses and the poor Protestants living about the Valleys of Piedmont whom the Duke of Savoy and others endeavored with all their might to take away from the earth speak The like cruelties were used lately upon the Reformed Cantons in Switzerland also in Poland and Germany and the French Protestants fearing daily to be rooted out and what remedy could they sinde with you I will not speak too bad of the great Collections made by you here for them and how they were employed for their relief Also of the monstrous blasphemies damned heresies shameful adulteries and many other villanies which have sprung up since Presbytery bore the sway the names whereof were scarcely known when Episcopacy ruled Let some more able pen proceed And however some Churches of Christ expelling Popery in heat of zeal have thereby laid lawful Episcopacy aside that is have not had since the opportunity to restore it to its primitive Institution yet many of them desire to conform to the plat-form of the Church of England which they suppose to come the nearest of any to the Apostolick form His next quarrel is If the Covenant abjure all Episcopacy it runs upon a rock of novelty and schism and dasheth us in opinion and practice against the judgement and custom of the Catholick Church in all Ages and places till of latter years from the Apostles days You call this a Magisterial and traditional way Surely such traditions as these are not to be under-valued the Histories and Monuments of the Church are a great light to us in many things especially such as are circumstancial and without them we should wander in the dark But once prove that your abol shed Episcopacy was of so ancient and universal observation Abolished we praise God you cannot say but that you did your best to abolish it the antiquity of it hath been often proved to your shame Whoever shall read the Judgement of Dr. John Reynolds concerning Episcopacy expressed in a Letter to Sir Francis Knolls and Dr. Ushers Reduction will finde this mans bold assertion c. I have not means nor opportunity to see that Letter nor any of his Quotations but I remember when I was a Scholar in Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford whereof some years before Doctor John Reynolds had been President I was told he was once much given to be a Roman Catholick and that his brother a Protestant converted him whom I knew in Glocester-Hall but he fell shortly after himself to the Church of Rome wherein he died now though Doctor Reynolds was a very learned and pious man who by a kinde of Antiperistasis because of his brothers fall might be more violent against the Discipline of our Church than perhaps otherwise he would have been yet he met with as pious and learned men as himself at the Conference at Hampton Court 2 King James that maintained it and carried it against him and all that were of his judgement The same cause that provoked Dr. Reynolds may be prevailed with an eminent person in this Land to favour your Covenanters so much at first because his brother was revolted to Popery But this was not the Bishops fault it had been more honorable for them both to have followed the example of their Reverend Uncle James Lord Bishop of Winchester Prelate of the Garter and my most honored Patron during my minority who knew better how to direct in Church affairs than they ever did but for want of his Compass they ran a great hazard to fall upon those two dangerous Rocks that lay on either hand of Popery and Presbytery As for Dr. Ushers Reduction if that be the meaning of it we grant it is not held fit that the Bishops should keep too great a distance and estrange themselves too much from their brethren it is acknowledged to have been a fault in some of them and it is proper it should be amended But pray give me leave to referre you to Dr. Downhams Defence of Episcopacy and when you can answer him I shall say that you have answered the Doctor Under colour of propounding the loy land religious sense of it he dasheth it with unlawfulness to be taken at all because not imposed by due Authority This hath been so often repeated that it is crambe saepius cocta and needs no answer Dr. The Jews sometimes solemnly renewed their Covenant with God c. which God