Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	king_n	parliament_n	successor_n	2,446	5	9.0199	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41253	A Few words among many, about the touchy point of succession humbly proposed to timely consideration against the session of Parliament; whether it be now, or hereafter.		1680 (1680)	Wing F838AB; ESTC R218787	3,801	8

A FEW WORDS AMONG MANY About the touchy point of SUCCESSION Humbly Proposed to Timely Consideration against the Session of Parliament whether it be now or hereafter THE Case to be put is this A Nation is Protestant in the main Body of it He that is like to succeed in the Throne is a Roman Catholick What shall be done in such an Affair The Case does belong to the Divines and to the Lawyers though it be the Parliament alone must determine it Nay the matter indeed is what every-body think themselves engaged in and every body speak their minds of There is no Coffee-house and few private houses but their Table-talk is of these things I see no reason therefere why I may not speak my mind also so long as I do it of my self and with this signification that no others how much soever else concern'd with me have any hand in the publication of it For I am perswaded that if the Parliament shall take the liberty every one of them as English-men and Protestants to speak the same things in the House as we do abroad they would be less afraid of one another and more secure in their Counsels whatsoever they talk in providing for the safety of the Kingdom and Religion It is decreed in the Council of Lateran That all Princes shall Exterminate the Hereticks out of their Dominions upon pain of Deposition Excommunication and Damnation The Papists believe the Doctrines of their Church to be infallible and what is decreed by a Pope and Universal Council is unquestionably received as a Doctrine of their Church and consequently if any thing be decreed to be done by any man upon pain of Damnation they must do it first or last by such means as they can if they intend to be saved Where a person then is a Roman Catholick and true to his Religion he cannot enter upon the Throne of a Protestant Kingdom but he must resolve to Exterminate his Subjects To enter so is to enter Hostili animo with the mind of an Enemy as Hostis Hostis Publicus But to be Hostis and Rex a King and an Enemy a Shepheard and Father of his People and one that comes to make havock of them To destroy and to rule or govern are things utterly incompatible The resolution of this Case therefore in point of Reason and Conscience is open That such a person must on necessity either renounce that Religion or else he must relinquish the Government and be content that the next rightful Heirs or Successors do possess it Upon these terms now if there be any person so pious and devout as not daring to hazard the Salvation of his Soul he does purpose if he be King whatsoever comes of it seeing he must to make his people turn Papists or execute that Decree of the Church upon them and if he be also so generous and brave as that rather than do such a thing as to persecute his Country and make the Nation miserable he will freely decline a Crown to avoid that intollerable incumbent duty What is there under the whole cope of Heaven so worthy to canonize a mans name to posterity as such an action And what can be said why the Representative of a Nation might not make an humble and yet confident Address to such a one to offer him Reasons for his voluntary condescension to such a Request made to him when a forced deposition by an Act of Parliament before any such tryal be attempted may look exceeding hard and also be ill taken Neither were it a thing less elegible as it must certainly be more happy to remain a Duke and Father of the next Successor taking the Throne and reigning in quiet than to be himself a King and reign only in Blood and with the Confusion of his Subjects And to render this matter yet more glorious and necessary to such a Royal person he shall moreover by doing thus provide security for the sacred life of a Soveraign and a Brother which so long as a Papist is sure to succeed must be still exposed to Plots and Treason Poyson and Assassination For there cannot be wanting a Clement a Ravilliack or some such Villain as is capable to be perswaded that by a feat so highly advantagious to their Religion he shall both expiate the sin and merit life eternal As for the Case in point of Law I undertake not Only it appears to me I must confess from the Statute of the thirteenth of the Queen that though this Government be Hereditary it is so Hereditary as the Laws or Statutes of Parliament do bind the descent of the Crown And if it be as it appears I have nothing else to say but to desire of God to give to those who are now in expectation to be Assembled the moderation and understanding of the Heads of the Children of Issachar that they may know at such a time as this what Israel hath to do And if there be no Act passed by them concerning these matters I must for the discharge of my Conscience superad thus much further that although on the part of the Soveraign he that is a Papist cannot take the Throne where the Body of the people are Protestant according to right reason and Conscience as might be made to appear further if what is said were not sufficient already yet on the part of the Subject let the Crown fall to any person whatsoever he be whether Papist or Protestant if he have right to it according to the present Law in force and the Constitution of the Nation there is no good Protestant or no Subject that fears God can rise up in Arms against him upon the account of Religion Evangelium say our first Reformers non abolet politias We are taught this by the Primitive Christians all along during the Reign of the Heathen who whatsoever their number was in their Cities Castles Armies as some of the Fathers tell us were ready to lay down their lives and submit to a Decimation upon a Decimation rather than they would draw their Swords upon the Emperour or sin against Heaven This we are taught more effectually by the Apostle and are therefore never to be untaught it Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers for there is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordain'd of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation I speak it I must acknowledge not only in regard to the prevention of Blood and Mischief if Providence should call us under such a Tryal but in regard to the Parliament that they may look the more about them and consider they have a season And more particularly that they may beware of running into this Errour upon which two Parliaments have split already the neglect of doing what may be done through an over-reaching haste toward what they would have done I mean in this point of Succession and