Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A67469
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The life of Mr. Rich. Hooker, the author of those learned books of the laws of ecclesiastical polity
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Walton, Izaak, 1593-1683.; King, Henry, 1592-1669.
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1665
(1665)
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Wing W670; ESTC R10749
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56,844
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234
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Earl of Leicester was one and the Bishop having by his Interest with Her Majesty put a stop to the Earls Sacrilegious designs they two fell to an open Opposition before her after which they both quitted the Room not Friends in appearance But the Bishop made a sudden and a seasonable return to Her Majesty for he found her alone and spake to her with great humility and reverence and to this purpose I beseech your Majesty to hear me with patience and to believe that yours and the Churches Safety are dearer to me than my Life but my Conscience dearer than both and therefore give me leave to do my Duty and tell you that Princes are deputed Nursing Fathers of the Church and owe it a Protection and therefore God forbid that you should be so much as Passive in her Ruines when you may prevent it or that I should behold it without horrour and detestation or should sorbear to tell your Majesty of the Sin and Danger And though you and my self are born in an Age of Frailties when the Primitive Piety and Care of the Churches Lands and Immunities are much decayed yet Madam let us first consider that there are such sins as Prophaneness and Sacrilege and that if there were not they could not have Names in Holy Writ and particularly in the New Testament And I beseech you to consider that though our Saviour said He judged no man and to testifie it would not judge nor divide the Inheritance betwixt the two Brethren nor judge the Woman taken in Adultery yet in this point of the Churches Rights he was so zelous that he made himself both the Accuser and the Judge and the Executioner to punish these sins witnessed in that he himself made the Whip to drive the Prohaners out of the Temple overthrew the Tables of the Money-changers and drove them out of it And consider that S. Paul said to those Christians of his time that were offended with Idolatry yet Thou that abborrest Idols dost thou commit Sacrilege Supposing I think Sacrilege the greater sin This may occasion your Majesty to consider that there is such a sin as Sacrilege and to incline you to prevent the Curse that will follow it I beseech you also to consider that Constantine the first Christian Emperour and Helena his Mother that King Edgar and Edward the Confessour and indeed many others of your Predecessours and many private Christians have also given to God and to his Church much Land and many Immunities which they might have given to those of their own Families and did not but gave them as an absolute Right and Sacrifice to God And with these Immunities and Lands they have entail'd a Curse upon the Alienators of them God prevent your Majesty from being liable to that Curse And to make you that are trusted with their Preservation the better to understand the danger of it I beseech you forget not that besides these Curses the Churches Land and Power have been also endeavoured to be preserved as far as Humane Reason and the Law of this Nation have been able to preserve them by an immediate and most sacred Obligation on the Consciences of the Princes of this Realm For they that consult Magna Charta shall find that as all your Predecessours were at their Coronation so you also were sworn before all the Nobility and Bishops then present and in the presence of God and in his stead to him that anointed you To maintain the Church Lands and the Rights belonging to it and this testified openly at the holy Altar by laying your Hands on the Bible then lying upon it And not onely Magna Charta but many modern Statutes have denounced a Curse upon those that break Magna Charta and now what account can be given for the breach of this Oath at the last Great Day either by Your Majesty or by me if it be wilfully or but negligently violated I know not And therefore good Madam let not the late Lords Exceptions against the failings of some few Clergie-men prevail with you to punish Posterity for the Errors of this present Age let particular Men suffer for their particular Errors but let God and his Church have their right And let Posterity take notice of what is already become visible in many Families That Church-land added to an ancient Inheritance hath proved like a Moth fretting a Garment and secretly consume both Or like the Eagle that stole a coale from the Altar and thereby set her Nest on fire which consumed both her young Eagles and her selfe that stole it And though I shall forbear to speak reproachfully of your Father yet I beg you to take notice that a part of the Churches Rights added to the vast Treasure left him by his Father hath been conceived to bring an unavoidable Consumption upon both notwithstanding all his diligence to preserve it And consider that after the violation of those Laws to which he had sworn in Magna Charta God did so far deny him his Restraining Grace that he fell into greater sins than I am willing to mention Madam Religion is the Foundation and Cement of humane Societies and when they that serve at Gods Altar shall be exposed to Poverty then Religion it self will be exposed to Scorn and become contemptible as you may already observe in too many poor Vicaridges in this Nation And therefore as you are by a late Act or Acts entrusted with a great Power to preserve or waste the Churches Lands yet dispose of them for Jesus sake as the Donors intended let neither Falshood nor Flattery beguile you to do otherwise and put a stop I beseech you to the approching Ruines of Gods Church as you expect comfort at the last Great day for Kings must be judged Pardon this affectionate plainness my most dear Soveraign and let me still be continued in your Favour and the Lord still continue you in his The Queens patient hearing this affectionate Speech and her future care to preserve the Churches Rights which till then had been neglected may appear a fair Testimony that he made hers and the Churches Good the chiefest of his cares and that she also thought so And of this there were such daily testimonies given as begot betwixt them so mutual a joy and confidence that they seemed born to believe and do good to each other she not doubting his Piety to be more than all his Opposers which were many nor his Prudence equal to the chiefest of her Council who were then as remarkable for Wisdom as those dangerous Times did require or this Nation did ever enjoy And in this condition he continued twenty years in which time he saw some Flowings but many more Ebbings of her Favour towards all men that opposed him especially the Earl of Leicester so that God seemed still to keep him in her Favour that he might preserve the remaining Church Lands and Immunities from Sacrilegious Alienations And this Good man deserved all the Honour and