Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	catholic_n	church_n	visible_a	2,907	5	9.9387	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38480	Eikon basilike deutera, The pourtraicture of His Sacred Majesty King Charles II with his reasons for turning Roman Catholick / published by K. James.; Eikon basilike.		1694 (1694)	Wing E312; ESTC R14898	141,838	350

Plot and contributed much to my Lord Russel's Condemnation And though I have no reason to bewail his Loss because he might have prov'd a dangerous Enemy yet the Merit of the Father makes me regret the Fate of the Son which I could wish had been more favourable I perceive that it 's dangerous to go on in this Method too fast and I must not give my Brother too much way lest I should indeed dig a Grave for my self and therefore having gratify'd the Catholicks enough at once I may very well be allowed to pause a while and consider whether I may not be ship-wrack'd in the Tempest that I have raised before it be too late and therefore I think it necessary to recal the Duke of Monmouth whose natural Affection will make him tender of my Preservation And by this means I shall have a Check upon my Brother though at the same time I must not allow the Plot to be decried but find it convenient still to sacrifice Colonel Sidney and suffer Speke and Braddon to be prosecuted for offering to call in question the Earl of Essex's having been felo de se And in the mean time I will take surer though slower Measures to bring about my Designs For the Heads of the Faction being now cut off and the whole Party brought under Hatches I judg it better Policy to divest the Corporations of their Charters gradually while the Church-men are in the surrendring Humour than to pursue these severer Methods with heat lest the People should come at last to be enraged and rise in an universal Rebellion for if my Brother be suffered to follow his own Conduct he will quickly run himself and me both off the Stage FINIS Here follow the Copies of two Papers written by the late King Charles II. Published in 1686. by King James's Authority who attested that he found them in his Brother 's Strong Box written in his own Hand The First Paper THE Discourse we had the other Day I hope satisfied you in the main that Christ can have but one Church here upon Earth and I believe that it is as visible as that the Scriputre is in print That none can be that Church but that which is called the Roman Catholick Church I think you need not trouble your self with entring into that Ocean of particular Disputes when the main and in truth the only Question is Where that Church is which we profess to believe in the two Creeds We declare there to believe one Catholick and Apostolick Church and it is not left to every phantastical Man's Head to believe as he pleases but to the Church to whom Christ left the Power upon Earth to govern us in Matters of Faith who made these Creeds for our Directions It were a very irrational thing to make Laws for a Country and leave it to the Inhabitants to be the Interpreters and Judges of those Laws for then every Man will be his own Judg and by consequence no such thing as either Right or Wrong Can we therefore suppose that God Almighty would leave us at those Uncertainties as to give us a Rule to go by and to leave every Man to be his own Judg I do ask any ingenuous Man whither it be not the same thing to follow our own Fancy or to interpret the Scripture by it I would have any Man shew me where the Power of deciding Matters of Faith is given to every particular Man Christ left his Power to his Church even to forgive Sins in Heaven and left his Spirit with them which they exercised after his Resurrection First by his Apostles in these Creeds and many Years after by the Council at Nice where that Creed was made that is called by that Name and by the Power which they had re-received from Christ they were the Judges even of the Scripture it self many Years after the Apostles which Books were Canonical and which were not And if they had this Power then I desire to know how they came to lose it and by what Authority Men separate themselves from that Church The only Pretence I ever heard of was because the Church has fail'd in wresting and interpreting the Scripture contrary to the true Sense and Meaning of it and that they have imposed Articles of Faith upon us which are not to be warranted by God's Word I do desire to know who is to be Judg of that whether the whole Church the Succession whereof has continued to this day without Interruption or particular Men who have raised Schisms for their own Advantage The Second Paper IT is a sad thing to consider what a world of Heresies are crept into this Nation Every Man thinks himself as competent a Judg of the Scriptures as the very Apostles themselves and 't is no wonder that it should be so since that part of the Nation which looks most like a Church dares not bring the true Arguments against the other Sects for fear they should be turned against themselves and confuted by their own Arguments The Church of England as 't is call'd would fain have it thought that they are the Judges in Matters Spiritual and yet dare not say positively that there is no Appeal from them for either they must say that they are Infallible which they cannot pretend to or confess that what they decide in Matters of Conscience is no further to be followed than it agrees with every Man 's private Judgment If Christ did leave a Church here upon Earth and we were all once of that Church how and by what Authority did we separate from that Church If the Power of interpreting of Scripture be in every Man's Brain what need have we of a Church or Church-men To what purpose then did our Saviour after he had given his Apostles Power to Bind and Loose in Heaven and Earth add to it that he would be with them even to the end of the World These Words were not spoken Parabolically or by way of Figure Christ was then ascending into his Glory and left his Power with his Church even to the End of the World We have had these hundred Years past the sad Effects of denying to the Church that Power in Matters Spiritual without an Appeal What Country can subsist in Peace or Quiet where there is not a Supream Judg from whence there can be no Appeal Can there be any Justice done where the Offenders are their own Judges and equal Interpreters of the Law with those that are appointed to administer Justice This is our Case here in England in Matters Spiritual for the Protestants are not of the Church of England as 't is the true Church from whence there can be no Appeal but because the Discipline of that Church is conformable at the present to their Fancies which as soon as it shall contradict or vary from they are ready to imbrace or join with the next Congregation of People whose Discipline and Worship agrees with their Opinion at that

so safe to attempt by Force and when all Causes come to be decided by Favour in Court I shall despoil my Enemies and enrich my Friends which is the surest way to increase them for I have sufficient Experience of the Inconvenience of Judges who keep strictly to the Rules of the Law and therefore shall take care now that Judg Hales is dead that none of Puritanical Education and Principles shall henceforth fill his Chair And thus when I can by Forms of Law dispose of my Subjects Lives and Estates I may perhaps find my Judges as useful as a Standing Army and worm my self by degrees into Arbitrary Government by Methods less odious and not so perceptible I do also find it necessary in order to the taking off of that general Disgust which the People of this Kingdom have imbib'd against Popery that some Authors be incourag'd to write smoothly on that Subject and insinuate a Difference betwixt the Court and Church of Rome that the latter is not chargeable with the Miscarriages of the former and that an Union amongst Christians is highly desireable And in the same manner I must take care to reconcile the Minds of my Subjects to the Prerogative and brand those who oppose it as Men of ill Designs and Principles But seeing the Non-compliance of my Subjects with the Measures which I take may probably issue in a Rebellion it will be my Wisdom to secure a Place of Retreat to take care before-hand that I may be made welcome and order it so as the French King may have Effects of my own wherewith to maintain me if the worst should happen and be in a Condition to restore me in case I should be expell'd for I am resolv'd to take Warning by my Father's Fate and either to stoop to invincible Necessity or provide against the severest Lot which may befal me and not to quarrel with my Subjects without good assurance of Foreign Alliance and while they are rich and have Arms and Ammunition Therefore I shall order it so that the French King may interrupt their Commerce by his Privateers and seize their Ships Men and Goods which will humble them And in the mean time when they address to me for Relief I can excuse my being unable to defend them seeing they are so backward in giving me Money to rig out my Fleet and that I must not upon the Miscarriage of Privateers break the Friendship betwixt the two Nations considering the great abundance of Male-contents which are at home and the Improbability of my receiving any Assistance from abroad now that the Parliament by their frequent Clamours of the Designs of the Court to introduce Popery and Slavery had rendred me suspicious to Foreign Protestants However that they may not suspect my Concurrence with the French in this Affair they shall now and then have Orders for my Resident at the French Court to demand Satisfaction but if they have it it shall cost them so dear as to make them quickly grow weary of that Method This indeed may seem unnatural for a Soveraign to concur with a Foreign Prince to rob his own Subjects but in my Heart I think they deserve no better their Priests have from the Mouth of their Divine Oracles preach'd up the Prerogative and Greatness of my Power that my People were created for me and not I for them that their Lives and Fortunes are at my Command and yet they allow me no Power in either so that it 's but reasonable they should smart for their damn'd Hypocrisy and it 's just seeing they will not allow me to take it with my own Hand that I take it from them by the Hand of another Their Riches and Fulness of Bread gives them occasion to be idle and leisure to concert their Measures of Rebellion to prevent which Poverty is the surest Method And in the mean time the French King allows me to go Sharers with him in the Profit which my Enemies call by the ignominious Name of a Pension But seeing my Subjects and their Fortunes are my Property what reason have I to give an Account to any how I treat them And seeing I am not to own that I have any legitimate Heirs of my own Body to succeed me why should I not make my Life as pleasant as I can which being impossible without Money it 's but reason that I should use my own Methods to come by it seeing my Subjects are backward to grant me what I need But I have yet a stronger Reason for this kind of Procedure the Catholicks having taught me that it is lawful to kill by necessary Consequence it must be much more lawful to impoverish my Heretical Subjects and put them out of a Condition to withstand the Reintroduction of that Religion which they pretend will merit a Crown in Heaven And if there be any such Place or Reward I know no other way how I can deserve it for rather than take such Methods to obtain it as Protestants think needful I had better want it Let those who have a mind to pull out their right Eyes and cut off their right Hands do so if they please I 'll keep mine as long as I can And seeing according to the Catholicks the Opus operatum is sufficient to carry me to Heaven I need not be so scrupulous nor nice about the way it being reasonable that Kings should be allow'd a broader Path than others And that seeing we are God's Vice-gerents on Earth he should afford us a more commodious Passage than ordinary to Heaven And that I may the better deserve it according to their Doctrine I shall not only take care to furnish Lewis XIV the great Champion of the Catholick Church with an Opportunity to enrich himself with the Treasures of my Heretical Subjects but also supply him with Arms and Ammunition from my own Magazines as I have already taught him the way of building Men of War and improving his Naval Strength that if I be not able to effectuate the great Design my self he or his Successors may do it when I am dead for I find that it will never be practicable by any English King without very powerful Assistance from abroad I know that my Measures are condemned my Designs suspected and Lists of the Ammunition and Arms which I have sent to France under pretence of sending them to Jersey handed about But I have this Advantage that my Enemies are not united and they who are most zealous to oppose me rendred sufficiently odious to the Church and their Party who being countenanc'd by my Authority are much the strongest or at least able enough to keep the rest under Hatches And while they contend against each other I obtain the Victory over both I have however not only secured my self a Place of Retreat and Royal Maintenance in case of my being overcome by my Subjects should there happen a Rupture but I have also weakned the Magazines of the Nation and provided sufficient