Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A51467
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A Most learned and eloquent speech spoken and delivered in the House of Commons at Westminster by a most learned lawyer, the 23th [sic] June, 1647.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing M2903A; ESTC R31047
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6,286
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6
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A MOST Learned and Eloquent SPEECH Spoken and Delivered in the HOUSE OF COMMONS AT WESTMINSTER By a most LEARNED LAWYER the 23th June 1647. Mr. Speaker I Know no man weaker than my self who do acknowledge I am as unfitting to speak in this Honourable House as Phormio the Philosopher was to prattle an Oration of War-Discipline to the great Souldier Hanibal in the presence of King M. _____ Yet out of the debility of my Knowledge the inability of my Learning the imbecility of my Judgment the nobility of this Transcript-Senate the mutability of their Censures the instability of Opinions the timorosity of Offending the volubility of Scandal and the impotency of my Utterance I have maugre all these perilous Impediments adventured to unbosom and disburden my mind before these unmatchable Patriots Mr. Speaker I am not ignorant that you are appointed in the Parliament to be Ear of the King and Mouth of the Commons And I desire that your hearing may not take offence at my words nor your tongue retort me a reproof instead of an applause Mr. Speaker In my Introduction to Grammar vulgarly called Accidence I found Eight Parts of Speech which is now an Introduction to me to divide my Speech into Eight Parts Viz. 1. What we have done for Religion 2. What for the Church 3. What for the King 4. What for the Laws 5. What for the Kingdom 6. What for the Subject 7. What for Reformation 8. What we have done for our selves Of all these in order as my infirm loquacity can demonstrate Mr. Speaker I do not herein declare either of neither the Opinions of this Honourable Assembly or my own but I will make plain unto you how the Malignants esteem us and into what Odium we are fallen among Forreign Nations First For Religion the Malignants say We have thrust out one and taken in two that we have thrown down Protestantism and erected Anabaptism and Brownism and that in our Doctrine we abuse the Renowned Memories of Queen Elizabeth King James and consequently King Charles that in their Religions they were Papistically minded which their Lives and Acts did and do manifest the contrary And the Malignants say it is no less than odious Treason either of these deceased or surviving Princes to traduce with such false and scandalous aspersions Mr. Speaker I would not be mistaken I say not my own words but I say what the Malignants say of us and my Lord Say And they the Protestant and Protestant Church was wont to be and ought to be an inward robe and vesture for the Soul and Conscience of all true Believers And that the Bishops Ancient Fathers and all Orthodox Divines have and had a care to keep her neat and hansom in as spotless integrity as a Militant Church in this imperfect Age could keep it But our Adversaries they say That we have in our Religion an outward Garment or Cloak of any colour which none do wear amongst us but Sectaries Fools Knaves and Rebels the said Cloak being with often turning worn as thread-bare as our Publick Faith is full of wrinckles spots and stains neither brushed spunged nor made clean with as many patches as Beggars Coats and that our preaching or pratling as they also say it is kept by Coblers Tinkers Weavers Wyer-Drawers and Hostlers so that all order and decent comliness is thrust out of the Church all laudable Ornaments and indifferent beseeming Ceremonies are cried down trod down and banished under the false and scandalous terms of Popery and in the place thereof is most nasty filthy loathsom and slovenly beastliness or Doctrine being vented in long and tedious Sermons to move and stir up the People to Rebellion and Trayterous Contributions to exhort them to Murther Rapine Robbery Disloyalty and all manner of mischief that may be to the confusion of their Souls and Bodies All these damnable Villanies our Adversaries say are the accursed Fruits which our new-moulded Linsy-Woolsey Religion hath produced for they say our Doctrine is neither derived from the Old or New Testament that all the Fathers and Testant Doctors and Martyrs never heard of it that Christ and his Apostles never knew it And for the Book of Common Prayer they say in Verse of that Ten thousand such as we can ne'r devise A Book so good as that which we dispise The Common-Prayer they mean if we should sit Ten thousand years with all our brains and wit We should prove Coxcombs all and in the end New make so good t is too good for us to mend And so much they say we have done for Religion it being the First Part of my Eighth Part of Speech as my weakness and your patience will permit I will more briefly and compendiously proceed to the second Secondly For the Churches we are taxed by the Malignants with prophane and more than barbarous pollutions of the Churches or Houses dedicated to God's Service they say we never built any but have taken too much accursed pains to deface and pull down many or perverting the right use of them into Stables Brothels Receptacles for Strumpets Luxurious Villanies and infernal stinking smoke of Mundungus as a Common Stable destroying those things which were with great maturity of Judgment Learning and Wisdom enacted by former Parliaments most execrably spoyling all by the usurping Power of this Parliament Mr. Speaker It is a rigorous medicine for the Tooth-ache to knock out the brains of the Patient he is no wise man that takes violent Physick and kills himself to purge a little flegm nor is he a prudent Builder that if his House do want some slight repair will pull it all down a man that loves his Wife will not cast her away for a few needless black patches that her face is disfigured withal In like manner the Malignants conceive if any things were amiss either in Ornament Gesture Ceremony Lyturgy or whatsoever might have been proved unfitting scandalous or justly offensive as is conceived it might have been removed or reconciled in a more Christian way than by Ruinating Demolishing Tearing and Violating Defiling and Spoyling all without regard of either Humanity Christianity Charity Law or order from God or man as too many Parishes and other places in this Famous Kingdom can most truly wofully testifie And these sweet pieces of services our Adversaries say we have done for the Churches Thirdly Concerning our Loyalty and Obedience to the King It is manifest we have all taken the Oath of Allegiance to His Majesty and that we have also lately taken Oaths and Covenants to make War against Him our Enemies would fain know who had power of dispence to free us from these Oaths and likewise by what authority The latter Covenant and Oaths were imposed upon the consciences of men for my own part if there were no wiser men than my self this ambiguous Aenigma should never have gone so far but it is reported by them that if we had kept our first Oaths religiously and