Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
city_n call_v king_n part_n 4,451 4 4.0694 3 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A54150 The great question to be considered by the King and this approaching Parliament, briefly proposed, and modestly discussed, (to wit); how far religion is concerned in policy or civil government and policy in religion? ... / by one who desires to give unto Cæsar the things that are Gods. Penn, William, 1644-1718. 1679 (1679) Wing P1300; ESTC R7032 14,393 8

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

The Great Question to be Considered by the KING and this approaching PARLIAMENT briefly proposed and modestly discussed To wit How far Religion is concerned in Policy or Civil Government and Policy in Religion With an Essay rightly to distinguish these great Interests upon the Disquisition of which a sufficient Basis is proposed for the firm Settlement of these Nations to the most probable satisfaction of the several Interests and Parties therein By one who desires to Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods THat this Nation and the Nations of Scotland and Ireland concerned with it are at present in such a posture and under such circumstances as give just reason both of fear and care more then ordinary both to Rulers and People is so without doubt that it needs no proof and that we are in a dangerous Feaver in regard both to our Civil and Religious Interest all in their wits must know which Disease albeit it be now in the opinion of most come to a Crisis yet few can determine whether it will end in a natural cool or prove a distemper yet more dangerous and deadly And truly at this time we are so far happy that though the Evil be great which threatneth us yet the Cause thereof is very manifest so that we are not put to the disadvantage of an uncertain search in that matter We see all this trouble proceeds from a pretence of Religion and Opinion that men have drank in that for and because of Religion they ought to concern themselves in the Civil Government of the Nations yea so far as to overturn it if otherwise the advancement of their Religion cannot be procured How much this Opinion albeit managed by men vastly differing as to the Religion they would advance has wrought to the shaking of these Nations few can be ignorant so that it seems high time and no season more opportune then now that this Question were fully decided What is the Interest of Religion in Policy or Civil Government and again of Policy and Civil Government in Religion And how far men upon the account of Religion may and ought to meddle in the Government or with the Governours and again how far the Civil Magistrate as such ought to concern himself in the Consciences of the People that if possible such Principles may be pitched upon agreeable to the nature of Christianity and to the soundest Principles of Government by which men may be possessed with a Faith that Christianity doth not oblige them to meddle in Government and reciprocally that they may be the more quieted in that belief that the Magistrate is not to concern himself in their Consciences so that in this mutual assurance the Magistrate may rule securely and administer Justice to all equally without fearing hurt from the Religion of any of his people and the people may fear God and follow piety according to the best of their knowledge without fearing prejudice from the Magistrate therefore And truly it cannot but be acknowledged that it would be a happy Nation where this were fully fixed and the establishing of such Principles seems the less difficult that in the purest times of Christianity so reputed by all the true Christian Religion was not at all hurtful nor dangerous to the Magistrate though differing from it nor did the Christians judge it any part of their Religion to seek to disturb him in his Government or screw themselves into it and though again they acknowledged his Authority in Civils to be just and lawful yet they claimed an exemption from being imposed upon by him in the exercise of their Consciences so that a re-establishing of those Principles and Practices which were believed and followed by those who on all hands are affirmed to have been the purest Christians and also good and faithful Subjects will do the business But for the more clear understanding of this matter it will be fit to take it a little higher and enquire how those two great Interests of Religion and Civil Government came to be interlaced and mixed together Cain was the first that disturbed Civil Society because of Religion and the Scripture from which alone we may expect it gives no account of any thing like the mixing of these Interests before the Floud and after the Floud the whole tract of the Hebrew History from Heber to Moses for of the particular state of the Jews I shall speak anon 〈◊〉 shew that the matter of Religion was wholly distinct from the outward Policy and Government then used in the World Jacob lived in Laban's Family though differing from them and Joseph among the Egyptians with which Superstitious Nation we cannot suppose he joyned in Worship and yet was both a faithful Friend to Pharoah and considerable Ruler over the People Moreover if the true ground and rise of Government be considered this will more appear for all Lawyers and States men derive the first grounds of Government from the Posterity of Noah's Sons after the Floud and do show how through necessity Reason and the Law of Nature led them thereunto for the Law of Nature giving to every man a natural and paternal Jurisdiction over his own Family when as the increase of Mankind and necessity of Commerce gave occasion for several Families to be concerned together and that these concernments begot Controversies needful to be determined and that every Family stood upon equal foot as to Authority and to decide by Force would prove destructive and not necessarily be just and that it was unfit every man should be Judge in his own cause therefore Reason led them to chuse men of approved Justice and Honesty to whom all differences were remitted and whose decisions served as Laws and were readily submitted to the parties resting in the assurance of their equity and this all Lawyers generally acknowledge was the first foundation of Civil Government in the joynt agreement of several Families from whence arose the Institution of Cities and from their Interest in the Country about the division of Provinces and Kingdoms Now as in the first part of Government in Families the Authority stood in one viz. in the Father of the Family so they usually chose one for the Government of joynt Families who thence were called Kings and this was the Original of Monarchy whom the opinion of Honesty Knowledge and Justice most readily and without fear of Emulation advanced to that dignity whose Judgment and W●ll answering to the cause of their advancement was a Law to the People Afterwards when the respect put upon these Rulers or Kings and the advantage thence accruing increased men began to be ambitious of the Imployment and from thence to use their influence to obtain it from which followed Faction and often Bloudshed which made men fall upon the expedient of letting the Government rest upon the Children of those who formerly had possessed it the Veneration of their Fathers and the supposition and